



\ 



7;m 
















^^ 



















^rTo* »o- 















* l»0 




i"tO<v . 











;* ^ V ^ -.^i^B^,* ,,^^ ^^^ 













'.Q. -^ • . 1 



O. ♦-.„<> ,f 



America Discovered 



BY 



THE WELSH 



IN^ lirO J^.T). 



BY 



REV. BENJAMIN F. BOWEN. 






Y Gwir yn erbyn y Byd. 



^^ " The Truth against the World," 



1-^ No..%$C?% 



■«■) 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
1876. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

BENJAMIN F. BOWEN, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



Some time since, J. Sabin, the well-known book 
antiquarian of New York, related a very amusing 
story to me of a clergyman from Rhode Island 
coming into his store and inquiring whether he 
wished to purchase an Indian Bible. At once 
Mr. Sabin replied that he did, and that he would 
pay him five hundred dollars for it. The clergy- 
man was delighted, returned to his home in 
Rhode Island, and, fearing to intrust so costly 
a relic to the express, determined to carry it 
himself to the city. With great eagerness he 
opened the book in Mr. Sabin's presence, when the 
latter, equally surprised and amused, exclaimed, — 

" Why, sir, that's not an Indian Bible !" 

" Not an Indian Bible !" 

" Why, no, sir !" 

The clergyman at first thought the antiquarian 
was quizzing him, but, seeing him so serious, 
asked, — 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

" Well, Mr. Sabin, what makes you think so ?" 

'* Because it is a Welsh Bible." 

The clergyman hastily picked up the volume 
and disappeared. 

The two languages bear a marked resem- 
blance to each other. In the classification of the 
letters, the consonants in particular, including the 
gutturals, palatals, dentals, and labials, with their 
forms and mutations, hold such an identity in 
sound that any person not familiar with either 
language might take them to be the same, while 
he who understood both would as readily allow 
that in many respects they were akin. 

The following pages are the result of an earnest 
desire to settle the question of, and, if possible, 
to fix the belief in, the voyages of Prince Madoc 
and his followers in 1170 a.d., and to assign 
them their rightful place in American history. 
Although this recognition has been very tardily 
given, by the almost utter silence of our histo- 
rians, and the apparent unconcern of those linked 
with the Prince by blood, language, and country, 
the honor will be none the less real if bestowed 
now. Indeed, in this age of claims, and when every 
scrap of our general and local history is eagerly 
sought and read, it cannot be otherwise than that 



PREFACE. 



5 



what is set forth in his favor will receive some 
share of attention from an intelligent public. Be- 
sides, so much earnest study has been given by 
those in other countries to the subject of the 
early discoveries on the American Continent, that 
it is hoped this contribution to its literature will 
serve to foster still further the spirit of inquiry, 
and be at the same time an acknowledgment of 
our debt to those countries for what they have 
furnished us in brain, heart, muscle, and life. 

At intervals extending through several years, 
when released from the pressure of my public 
work, I have been engaged in the collection of 
the materials, both at home and abroad, from old 
manuscripts, books, pamphlets, magazines, and 
papers. The subject was not common, neither 
were the materials. What are the facts? That 
is the question. Facts of history, experience, ob- 
servation. Speculative verbiage is avoided, for 
want of time and space. Others are made to 
take my place, for the sake of presenting what 
they kfiew. Such a method is more convincing 
than the expression of empty opinions. 

B. F. B. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Migrations of the Welsh 9 



CHAPTER n. 
By whom was America first peopled? . . .17 

CHAPTER III. 
The Voyages of Prince Madoc 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

Supported by Welsh and other Historians . . 34 

CHAPTER V. 

The Narrative of Rev. Morgan Jones . . .47 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Narrative of Rev. Charles Beatty . . » 59 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Welsh Indians moving West . . . .71 

CHAPTER Vlll. 
The Dispersion of the Welsh Indians . . .85 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Maurice Griffith's and his Companions' Experience 96 



CHAPTER X. 

Captain Isaac Stuart, Governors Sevier and Din- 
wiDDiE, General Morgan Lewis — their Knowl- 
edge OF THE Welsh Indians 109 

CHAPTER XI. 
The Mandan Indians: Who are They? . . . 120 

CHAPTER XII. 
Welsh Blood in the Aztecs 130 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Moquis, Mohaves, and Modocs . . . .145 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Signs of Freemasonry among Indians . . . .156 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Welsh Language among American Indians . 159 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Welsh of the American Revolution . . .165 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Address of Rev. David Jones at Ticonderoga . .180 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



BY 



THE WELSH 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MIGRATIONS OF THE WELSH. 

The etymology of the names of persons, places, 
and things is a curious subject of inquiry. It is 
one of the safest guides in an attempt to distin- 
guish the race-differences of a people whose his- 
tory reaches back to an immemorial era. 

The names of Wales and the Welsh are compara- 
tively of recent origin. The Welsh have always 
called themselves Cymru or Cymry, — Romanized 
into Cambria or Cambrians. This has been the 
generic name of the race as far back as any trace 
can be found of their existence. The Romans 
changed Gal into Gaul; the Welsh sound tc as e: 
hence they pronounced the Romanized word Gaul 
as Gael. The Saxons, as was their wont, substi- 

2 9 



lO AMERICA DISCOVERED 

tuted w for g : hence, as the people of Cambria 
were esteemed to be analogous to the Gauls, they 
called their country Waels or Wales, and its people 
Waelsh or Welsh; and these names have continued 
to the present time. But this people always have 
called themselves ** Y Cymry," of which the strictly 
literal meaning is aborigines. They call their lan- 
guage " Y Cymraeg," — the primitive tongue. Celt, 
meaning a covert or shelter, and Gaul, meaning an 
open plain or country, are terms applied to various 
subdivisions by which the Cymric race have been 
known. In this connection it may be appropriate 
to say that the word " Indian" is one that does not 
apply or belong to the red race of the American 
Continent, but was used by Columbus, who, anx- 
ious to discover the East Indies by a northwest 
route, imagined that he had reached that country, 
and called the inhabitants Indians. Subsequent 
events have proved his mistake. The primitive 
races of this continent are more properly desig- 
nated by the word aborigines, as in the case of 
the Cymry. 

Through the rich and copious language and lit- 
erature of Wales, the student of history is able to 
gather a vast store of knowledge respecting its 
inhabitants and their early ancestors. The sub- 
stantial result arrived at as to their origin and 
migrations may be briefly stated as follows : 

First. That the inhabitants of Wales, known to 
Homer as the Cimmerii, migrated thither from the 



BY THE WELSH. II 

great fountain-head of nations, — the land of the 
Euphrates and Tigris. 

Second. That they went in successive bands, 
each in a more advanced state of civiHzation than 
the former. 

Third. That they carried with them a pecuHar 
language, peculiar arts and superstitions, marking 
their settlement on the Island of Britain at a very 
early period. 

Fourth. That their journey through Europe is 
marked with the vestiges of tumuli, mounds, skulls, 
rude utensils, ornaments, and geographical names 
in their language. 

The Welsh language is of a pure radical con- 
struction, and remarkably free from admixture with 
other tongues. It is as copious, flexible, and refined 
as it was two thousand years ago, when it existed 
alongside the Greek and Latin, both of which it 
antedates and survives, for it is not, like them, a 
dead language, but is in living use at the present 
day in literature, commerce, home, and worship. 

" ' Dim Saesenaig ! Dim Saesenaig!'" exclaimed 
the astonished Thomas Carlyle, when visiting the 
vale of Glamorgan, "'Dim Saesenaig!' (No Eng- 
lish! No English !) from every dyke-side and house 
comes. The first thing these poor bodies have to 
do is to learn English." 

Thomas Carlyle was greatly mistaken, if he ever 
believed that the Welsh would tamely surrender 
their Cymraeg. It has been the symbol of their 



12 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

unconquerable hope, and they watch with jealous 
care any inroads made upon it. Upon the princi- 
ple that might is right, nations have been forced 
from their own soil, but with a most passionate 
tenacity they have still clung to their native tongue. 
True, there have been languages which have be- 
come extinct, like the nations which have spoken 
them, by conquest; but the Welsh continues to 
exist, because either the people who speak it have 
never been conquered, or it has proved itself supe- 
rior to conquest. 

Edward the First is supposed to have directed 
the final blow towards crushing Welsh independ- 
ence ; and yet there is at present preserved in the 
cathedral of St. Asaph, North Wales, the celebrated 
Rhuddlan Parliament Stone, on which is written 
this inscription : 

This Fragment is the Remains 

Where Edward the First held his 

Parliament A.D. 1283; in which the 

Statute of Rhuddlan was enacted 
Securing to the Principality of Wales 
lis Judicial Rights and Independence. 

The Welsh have a property in the British Isle 
which no earthly power can wrest from them. 
Henry the Second once asked a Welsh chieftain, 
"Think you the rebels can withstand my army?" 
He replied, " King, your power may to a certain 
extent harm and enfeeble this nation, but the anger 
of God alone can destroy it. Nor do I think in 



BY THE WELSH, 1 3 

the day of doom any other race than the Cymry 
will answer for this corner of the earth to the 
Sovereign Judge." 

Many centuries have elapsed since these brave 
and hopeful words were uttered, and the destiny of 
Wales is more manifest, — that her nationality will 
be swallowed up or merged with English laws, 
customs, and habits : still her language and litera- 
ture will survive, and the names will continue fixed 
to assert the antiquity and greatness of her people. 
More than half the names borne by the population 
of England are of Cymric origin or derivation. 
More than three-fourths of the names in Scotland, 
and about one-half of those of France, are from 
the same source. Cambrian names are found all 
through Europe, — in Italy, Switzerland, Holland, 
Germany, and about the Pyrenees. 

The Welsh name for London is Llundain. It 
was Latinized into LundiniLin, and Anglicized into 
Lundon or London. Its etymology is from llyn, 
a pool or lake, and Dain or Tain for Thames (the 
sound of d being like that of t) : hence, a pool or 
lake on the Thames. The low flat on the east side 
of London, known as " The Isle of Dogs," now a 
part of the mainland, was at one time flooded by 
the Thames ; and hence the name of Lhnidain, or 
Thames Lake. Liverpool came from Flowing Pool; 
that is, the tide flowed in and out. 

Avon is the generic Welsh name for river : hence 
Avon-Clyde, Avon-Conwy, Avon-Stratford. Cum- 

2* 



H 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



berland stands for Cymbri-land ; Northumberland 
for North Cymbri-land, Aber is the mouth of a 
river, Anglicized into harbor: hence there is Aber- 
Conway, Aberdeen. There is scarcely a river, 
mountain, or laK:e in England or in Scotland the 
etymology of which is not found in the Welsh 
language at the present day. 

The ancienf British language, physique, skull, 
hair, eyes, and flexure of pronunciation still pre- 
ponderate in England, notwithstanding the inces- 
sant boasts of the Saxon, who was a barbarous 
savage when he arrived, and who did not exhibit 
a single instance of knowledge and learning until 
after he had come in contact with the Cymric race. 

With a view to tracing the migrations of this 
race throughout Europe, observe the ancient geo- 
graphical terms, with their strong physical traits. 

Caucasus is derived from the two Welsh words 
can, to shut up, to fence in, and cas, separated, in- 
sulated. This mountain-chain has borne this name 
from the earliest human records ; and how ex- 
pressive of their position and character, to inclose 
Europe from Asia ! 

The Caspian Sea means, when derived, cas, sepa- 
rated, and pen^ head ; literally, a sea with a head or 
source, but insulated and without an outlet. Any 
one familiar with this body of water can understand 
the force of the words. 

Crimea comes from the Welsh word crynm (pro- 
nounced kri^me, the c being sounded as k, and the 



BY THE WELSH. 



5 



21 as e), which means to bend or curve ; literally, 
a circular peninsula. The Crimea was the Gwlad 
yr Haf (summer land) of the Cymry. 

Alps is derived from al, grand, sublime, and pcn^ 
head, — a sublime head. 

Armorica comes from ar-y-inor, upon the sea. 

Danube finds its derivation from dan, under, 
below, and ?// (pronounced iiv or ?/^), spreading or 
diffused. Some of the Cymric bands or colonies, 
in their migrations westward, halted along the 
banks of the Danube ; others settled on the Elbe, 
and were called the Wendi, and their descendants 
speak at the present time a slightly-corrupted 
Welsh language. Bautzen, in Bavaria, and Glogau, 
in Prussia, are old Cymric towns; and an eminent 
German scholar has shown what ancient Cymric 
relics are to be found in the museums of Dresden 
and Berlin. Recently many learned philologists 
were excited into a sharp discussion to account 
for the name of the German capital, Berlin. Its 
origin is plainly Cymric, and is derived from ber, 
a curve, and //;/, a river. 

There is such a striking resemblance between 
the ancient Cymric laws, as compiled by Dyfnval 
Moelmud, and the Institutes of Menu, that many 
of the most able Oriental and Welsh scholars have 
concluded that another branch of the Cymric race 
must have gone eastward from the Caucasus and 
penetrated into India. Sir William Jones, a son of 
a Welshman, translated these Institutes of Menu. 



1 6 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

or Brahminic Laws, and says, *' The name * Menu' 
is clearly derived from menses, mens, or mind, as 
all the Pandits agree that it means intelligent." 
Memv in Welsh means the seat of intelligence. 

Moreover, it is generally admitted that the 
Welsh contains a sufficient number of root-words 
by which the original connection of the Semitic 
(Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Egyptian, etc.) and the 
Indo-European languages is distinctly shown. 
And, as will be subsequently proved, a large 
number of words have been found in use by the 
aborigines of the American Continent, whose roots 
or simplest forms were related to roots of words 
in the old languages, many of which were directly 
connected with the Cymric tongue. 

The object of this cursory sketch has been 
to show that, from the very earliest period, the 
branches of the Cymric race have been extensively 
spread over the earth, as indicated by the sure tes- 
timony of their language; that they moved from 
east to west, preceding all other races — the Teu- 
tonic, Sarmatian, etc. — by long intervals of time. 
From the certain data of history these things are 
placed beyond doubt, — by Herodotus, C^sar, and 
others. Would it be surprising, then, if, in accord- 
ance with the same nomadic principle and these 
westward migrations, together with the fierce per- 
secutions of the northern hordes, some portions of 
the Cymry were driven still farther westward and 
were wafted to the American Continent ? 



BY THE WELSH. ly 



CHAPTER II. 

BY WHOM WAS AMERICA FIRST PEOPLED? 

By whom and by what means the American 
Continent was originally peopled has been, in the 
main, an unsolved problem. That it will always 
remain so does not appear from new proofs which 
are being adduced to support favorite theories. 
Four of these theories have, at different times, and 
with much intelligent zeal, been maintained. 

(i.) That the ancestors of the American abo- 
rigines came from Europe, — that they were Cau- 
casians, but became changed in color by the use 
of red roots and the bleachings of the sun ; and 
of these were represented the Romans, Grecians, 
Spaniards, Irish, Norsemen, Courlanders, Rus- 
sians, and Welsh. 

(2.) That they came from Asia, and comprised 
Israelites, Canaanites, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Per- 
sians, Tartars, East Indians, Chinese, and Japanese. 

(3.) That they came from Africa, the original 
cradle, it is maintained, of the American aborigines, 
who are made the descendants of the Egyptians, 
Carthaginians, or Numidians. 

(4.) That the American aborigines are the de- 
scendants of all the nations in the world. 



1 8 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

The last is certainly the most accommodative, 
and can be made to bend to suit the shifting ex- 
igencies of an imperfect state of knowledge. The 
skeptical view would not be accepted, inasmuch as 
it broke the unity of the race, — namely, that all 
the original people and animals of America were 
distinct creations. 

Beginning with Peleg, whose name signifies 
division, when Noah divided the earth between his 
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, there is found a 
basis for the repeopling of the earth. Africa was 
assigned to Ham, the temperate zones to Shem, 
and the frigid zones to Japheth. Heathen altars 
and the mounds of early Scripture are taken as the 
original types of the earthen monumental remains 
of America. At the dispersion on the plains of 
Shinar, and after the confusion of tongues, " the 
Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the 
face of all the earth." It was the opinion of Ogilby, 
cosmographer to the English king in 1671, that 
men and animals came soon after the flood from 
Armenia to Tartary, and thence, by continuous 
land-route by way of the present Behring Straits, 
to America. 

The Atlantis of Homer, Solon, Plato, and He- 
siod, which was supposed to unite the continents 
of Africa and America, or which was a great 
island situated between them, seems to lose, by 
time, more of its mythical character, and to be 
brought to the plane of a historic fact. It cer- 



BY THE WELSH. 1 9 

tainly cannot be treated as a pure fiction. The 
story that Solon brought from Egypt to Greece of 
the Atlantic island was not new there ; for a great 
festival was held in Greece, accompanied with 
symbols, to show what advantage the Athenians 
had in their wars with the Atlantes. 

Diodorus Siculus (book v. chap, ii.) seems to 
refer to America in the following: "Over-against 
Africa lies a very great island in the vast ocean, 
many days' sail from Libya westward. The soil 
is very fruitful. It is diversified with mountains 
and pleasant vales, and the towns are adorned 
with stately buildings." He then alludes to the 
Phoenicians sailing along the Atlantic coast of 
Africa. The theory that the land forming the bed 
of the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Africa 
is a vast sunken tract is hardly defensible. The 
remnants of Cape Verd and Ascension Islands, 
and the numerous rock-formations and sand-banks 
surveyed with great accuracy by Bauche, have 
been submitted in its favor. Traditions exist that 
a people on the Mediterranean, sailing through the 
Straits of Gibraltar, the ancient Calpe, were driven 
westward by a storm, and were heard of no more. 
It is thought they reached the American coast. 
Some time since, at a meeting of the Mexican Geo- 
graphical Society, it was stated that some brass 
tablets had been discovered in the northern part of 
Brazil, covered with Phoenician inscriptions, which 
tell of the discovery of America five centuries B.C. 



20 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

They are now in the museum of Rio Janeiro. 
They state that a Sidonian fleet left a port of the 
Red Sea, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and 
following the southeast trade-winds until the north- 
east trade-winds prevented farther progress north, 
and they were driven across the Atlantic. The 
number of the vessels, the number of the crews, 
the name of Sidon as their home, and many other 
particulars, are given. 

It is given as veritable history that a farmer near 
Montevideo, South America, discovered in one of 
his fields, in 1827, a flat stone which bore strange 
and unknown characters ; and beneath this stone 
was a vault made of masonry, in which were de- 
posited two ancient swords, a helmet, and a shield. 
The stone and the deposits were brought to Monte- 
video, and most of the inscriptions of the former 
were sufficiently legible to be deciphered. They 
ran as follows : 

''During the dominion of Alexander, the son of 
Philip, King of Macedo7t, in the sixty- 
third Olympiad, Ptolemais!' 

On the handle of one of the swords was a man's 
portrait, supposed to represent Alexander. The 
helmet had on it fine sculptured work, represent- 
ing Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector around 
the walls of Troy. This would seem to point to 
an early Grecian discovery of America. 

Humboldt cites a passage of Plutarch, in which 



BY THE WELSH. 21 

he thinks that both the Antilles and the great 
continent itself are described. 

In " Varia Historia," book iii. chap, xviii., yElian 
tells how one Theopompus relates the particulars 
of an interview between Midas, King of Phrygia, 
and Silenus, in which the latter reported the ex- 
istence of a great continent beyond the Atlantic, 
" larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya together." 

In 1 76 1, Deguignes, a French scholar, made 
known to the world that the Chinese discovered 
America in the fifth century. He derived his 
knowledge from Chinese official annals. He afr 
firmed that in the year 499 a.d., Hoei Shin (Uni- 
versal Compassion), a Chinese Buddhist priest, 
returned to Singan, the capital of China, and de- 
clared that he had been to Tahan (Kamtschatka), 
and from thence on to a country about twenty 
thousand li (short Chinese miles), or about seven 
thousand English miles. The measurements are 
taken to be about the distance between China 
and California, or Mexico. He called the country 
Fusang, from the name of an abundant plant, — the 
Mexican "maguey," or American aloe. 

He described the gold, silver, copper, and other 
ores which abounded; also the customs, rites, and 
cycles of time ; and these are made to agree with 
what has been known of the American aborigines. 
Oriental scholars, like Klaproth and Bretschneider, 
have handled these pretensions with keen severity; 
while there have not been wanting others who 

3 



22 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

allege that the Japanese and Chinese do not record 
myths. There is a description of Fusang in the 
Japanese Encyclopaedia, — Wa-kan-san-tai-dzon-ye. 

Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg says, in his "Popol 
Vuh," a book on the ancient people of Mexico 
and Central America, *' There is an abundance of 
legends and traditions concerning the passage of 
the Irish into America, and their habitual com- 
munication with that continent, many centuries 
before the time of Columbus. We should bear 
in mind that Ireland was colonized by the Phoeni- 
cians. An Irish saint, named Vigile, who lived in 
the eighth century, was accused to Pope Zachary 
of having taught heresies on the subject of the 
antipodes. At first he wrote to the Pope in reply 
to the charge, but afterwards went to Rome in 
person to justify himself, and there proved to the 
Pope that the Irish had been accustomed to com- 
municate with a transatlantic world." 

Brereton's account of Gosnold's voyage to the 
New England coast in 1602 mentions an occur- 
rence off the coast of Maine, of his having met 
" eight Indians, in a Basque shallop, with mast 
and sail, an iron grapple, and a kettle; that they 
came aboard boldly, one of them being appareled 
with a waistcoat and breeches of black serge, made 
after our sea-fashion, hose and shoes on his feet: 
all the rest (saving one that had a pair of breeches 
of blue cloth) were naked." 

Michel, in his " Les Pays Basques," thinks that 



BY THE WELSH. 23 

the Basques, being adventurous fishermen, were 
accustomed to visit the Americ^tn coast from time 
immemorial. They were engaged in the whale 
and other fisheries. 

The voyages of the Norsemen, and their tempo- 
rary settlements on the American Continent, are 
now too well authenticated to admit of any doubt. 

In the preceding chapter it was shown that the 
Welsh were a migratory race, and had moved from 
the lands of the Euphrates and Tigris in an east- 
ward direction, and also westwardly, till, in the 
time of Homer, they occupied the British Island. 
They were surrounded by water. Their very ne- 
cessities made them navigators. They conducted 
large fisheries. The Phoenicians and Greeks traded 
with them in tin and lead, and in the Baltic for 
amber. Their commercial relations were extensive 
before Julius Caesar reached the island. He came 
to attack and subdue them, because their naval 
power, as he himself says, assisted the Gauls. 
Their ships were made of oak, and were so strong 
as to be impenetrable to the beaks of the Roman 
ships, and so high that they could not be annoyed 
by the darts of the Roman soldiers. 

King Canute, in the eleventh century, had ves- 
sels with sixty rowing-benches. Early voyagers 
traversed seas and oceans with comparative safety. 
Though they had not the compass (which, by the 
way, is uncertain), they studied the elements of na- 
ture, — the winds, currents, sun, and stars. Modern 



24 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

sailors have the advantage of accurate instruments 
to reduce their observations. The ascensions and 
descensions of the sun by day, and the polar star 
by night, are sufficient guides to prevent sailing 
wide of points. 

Between America and Europe are two great 
currents, — the southwesterly bearing towards the 
former continent, and the northeasterly towards the 
latter. The majestic Gulf Stream sweeps around 
from Newfoundland till it almost crosses the At- 
lantic near the British Island. That is why the 
steamship-lines adopt the course of sailing-vessels. 
By the aid of the simple forces of nature, early 
voyagers reached the American Continent. 



BY THE WELSH. 



25 



CHAPTER HI. 



THE VOYAGES OF PRINCE MADOC. 

OwAiN GwYNEDD was esteemed one of the great- 
est princes Wales ever produced. 

Upon the death of his father, which occurred in 
1 1 37 A.D., he took his share of the possessions, 
which were divided, according to the custom of 
the nation, among the sons, and he ruled North 
Wales, his seat of government being at Aberfraw, 
till 1 169 A.D., when he died. 

Gwalchmai, a Bard of his times, addressed to 
him the following spirited ode in celebration of an 
important victory he achieved over the English at 
the battle of Tal y Moelvre : 

"The generous chief I sing of Rhodri's line, 
With princely gifts endow'd, whose hand 
Hath often curb'd the border land, 
Owain, great heir of Britain's throne, — 
Whom fair Ambition marks her own, 
Who ne'er to yield to man was known, 
Nor heaps he stores at Avarice's shrine. 

"Three mighty legions o'er the sea-flood came, 
Three fleets intent on sudden fray ; 
One from Erin's verdant coast, 
One with Lochlin's arm^d host, 
Long burdens of the billowy way ; 
3* 



26 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

The third, from far, bore them of Norman's name, 
To fruitless labor doom'd, and barren fame. 

" 'Gainst Mona's gallant lord, where, lo! he stands, 
His warlike sons ranged at his side. 
Rushes the dark tumultuous tide, 
Th' insulting tempest of the hostile bands : 
Boldly he turns the furious storm, 
Before him wild Confusion flies, 
While Havoc rears her hideous form, 
And prostrate Rank expiring lies ; 
Conflict upon conflict growing, 
Gore on gore in torrents flowing. 
Shrieks answering shrieks, and slaughter raving. 
And high o'er Modore's front a thousand banners waving. 

"Now thickens still the frantic war; 
The flashing death-strokes gleam afar. 
Spear rings on spear, flight urges flight, 
And drowning victims plunge to night; 
Clieck'd by the torrent-tide of blood, 
Backward Menai rolls his flood; 
The mailed warriors on the shore. 
With carnage strew'd, and dyed with gore, 
In awful anguish drag their mangled forms along. 
And high the slaughter'd throng 
Is heap'd, the King's red chiefs before. 

" Lloegria's onset thus, Lloegria's flight, 
The struggle doom'd her power to tame, 
Shall, with her routed sons, unite 
To raise great Owain's sword to fame ; 
Whilst sevenscore tongues of his exploits shall tell, 
And all their high renown through future ages swell." 

Many other odes are extant in the Welsh lan- 
guage, written in honor of this great prince, which 
have never been surpassed in true poetic spirit, 



BV THE WELSH. 



27 



elegance of diction, and metrical ease, by the 
productions of any other country. 

Owain Gwynedd had nineteen children. The 
names of the sons were Rhodri, Cynoric, Riryd, 
Meredydd, Edwal, Cynan, Rien, Maelgon, Lle- 
welyn, lorweth, Davydd, Cadwallon, Hywell, Ca- 
dell, Madoc, Einon, and Phylip ; and of this 
number Rhodri, Hywell, Davydd, and Madoc 
were the most distinguished. 

lorweth, being the eldest son, was entitled to 
succeed his father, but was declared unfit to oc- 
cupy such a position, on account of an injury done 
to his nose, which gained for him the not very 
euphonious name of Drwyndwn (Swarthy-nose). 

Hywell was a brilliant soldier and poet, and 
many of his best productions are still preserved. 
His mother was a native of Ireland, and although 
not born in wedlock, thus being regarded as an 
illegitimate son, he aspired to the crown after the 
death of his father, and succeeded in obtaining it, 
at the same time granting to lorweth the cantrevs 
of Nanconwy and Ardudwy. 

Soon after, he went to Ireland to receive posses- 
sion of his mother's property, but upon his return 
he found Davydd, the legitimate son of Owain by 
another wife, asserting in arms his right to the 
throne under the sanction of a legitimate birth. 
The consequence was that the entire country be- 
came embroiled in a bitter civil war, Hywell was 
slain in battle, and Davydd ab Owain occupied 



28 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

his father's throne. As a stroke of perfidy, or 
poHcy, he married the sister of King Henry the 
Second, whereby he succeeded in breaking for a 
time the independent spirit of the Welsh. He 
gave aid to his brother-in-law in money and men, 
and attended the Parliament at Oxford. Such a 
treacherous course excited the disgust, and hatred 
of his brothers, as well as of his subjects generally, 
so that his realm continued in a state of wild revolt 
and dissension. Davydd, suspicious and alarmed 
lest he might lose his throne through some unfore- 
seen intrigues, seized and imprisoned Rhodri, slew 
lorweth, and drove his other brethren into exile. 

He was so intractable in spirit, and so cruel, 
that he put out the eyes of large numbers who 
were not subservient to his will. 

From all the concurrent evidences which can be 
gleaned, it appears that Madoc was the commander 
of his father's fleet, which at that time was so con- 
siderable as successfully to oppose that of Eng- 
land at the mouth of the Menai in the year 1 142. 
The poem in which Gwalchmai has celebrated 
this victory has already been given in this chap- 
ter. There is also an allusion to it in Caradoc's 
History, p. 163, 4th ed., 1607. 

Madoc was of a mild, gentle temperament, and 
must have felt deeply grieved at the unnatural 
dissensions existing between his own brothers. 
Moreover, he was an object of suspicion himself, 
exposed to his brother Davydd's ferocity, who 



BY THE WELSH. 



29 



imagined that he might also dispute the question 
of succession to the throne. Doubtless it was this 
that led Madoc to resolve that he would leave 
those scenes of contention, and seek, in exile from 
his native country, some other land in the west, if 
such could be found. Being commander-in-chief 
of the fleet, he was able to take a speedy departure. 

This emigration of Prince Madoc seems to have 
been commemorated by Bards who lived very near 
the time in which it took place. According to 
various old documents, his enterprise of exploring 
the ocean westward resulted in the discovery of a 
new world, from which he returned to make known 
his good fortune and to gather other emigrants 
to accompany him thither. He accordingly fitted 
out a second expedition, and, taking his brother 
Riryd, Lord of Clocran in Ireland, with him, they 
prevailed upon a number to accompany them, suffi- 
cient to fill ten ships. They set sail from a small 
port, five miles from Holyhead, in the island of 
Anglesea. 

There is a large book of pedigrees still extant, 
written by Jeuan Brecva, who flourished in the age 
preceding the time of Columbus, where the above 
event is thus noticed in treating of the genealogy 
of Owain Gwynedd : " Madoc and Riryd found land 
far in the sea of the west, and there they settled." 

The Bards were the historians of those times. 
By a perusal of the compositions of those who 
were contemporary with Madoc, it is found that 



^o AMERICA DISCOVERED 

his name is mentioned three or four times by 
Cynddelw, Llywarch, and Gwalchmai. These 
are held to be among the most celebrated of the 
Welsh Bards. Their works, which are mostly ex- 
tant in manuscript, would each of them make a 
respectable volume. 

Llywarch, who was the son of Llewelyn, wrote 
a poem while undergoing the ordeal of the hot 
iron to prove his innocence respecting Madoc's 
death. He invoked the aid of the Saviour " lest 
he should injure his hand with the shining sword 
and his kinsmen should have to pay the galaiiasy 
It is addressed 

"TO THE HOT IRON. 

" Good Iron ! free me from the charge 
Of slaying. Show that he 
Who smote the prince with murderous hand 
Heaven's kingdoms nine shall never see, 
Whilst I the dwelling-place of God 
Shall share, safe from all enmity." 

The same poet, in a panegyric, addressed to 
Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd, of Hywell and Ma- 
doc, his brothers, says, — 

"Two princes were there, who in wrath dealt woe, 
Yet by the people of the earth were loved : 
One who in Arvon quench'd ambition's flame, 
Leading on land his bravely toiling men ; 
And one of temper mild, in trouble great, 
Far o'er the bosom of the mighty sea 
Sought a possession he could safely keep, 
From all estranged for a country's sake." 



BY THE WELSH. 



31 



In a poem addressed to Prince Llywelyn ab 
lorweth by the same bard, there appear the fol- 
lowing lines: 

" Needless it is to ask all anxiously, 
Who from invaders will our waters guard? 
Llywelyn, he will guard the boundary wave; 
The lion i' the breach, ruler of Gwynedd. 
The land is his to Powys' distant bounds. 
He met the Saxons by Llanwynwy lake, 
Across the wave is he victorious, 
Nephew of Madoc, whom we more and more 
Lament that he is gone." 

Gwalchmai addressed an ode to Davydd ab 
Owain Gwynedd, lamenting his being deprived of 
that prince's brothers : 

" Silent I cannot be without mentioning who they were, 
Who so well of me merited praise : 
Owain the fierce, above the muse's song, 
The manly hero of the conflict; 
Cadwallon, ere he was lost, 
It was not with smooth words he praised me; 
Cadwaladyr, lover of the harmony of exhilarating songs. 
He was wont to honor me ; 
Madoc, distributing his goods, 
More he did to please than displease me." 

In an elegy on the family of Owain Gwynedd, by 
Cynddelw, Madoc is twice mentioned, one passage 
particularly seeming worthy of attention : 

" And is not Madoc by the whelming wave 
Slain? How I sorrow for the helpful friend ! 
Even in battle was he free from hate. 
Yet not in vain gra'^p'd he the warrior's spear." 



32 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



There is a Welsh triad entitled "The Three 
Losses by Disappearance." The first loss was 
that of Gavran, the son of Aeddan Vradog, a chief- 
tain of distinguished celebrity of the latter part of 
the fifth century. He went on an expedition to dis- 
cover some islands which are known by the name 
of Gwerddonan Llion, or the Green Islands of the 
Ocean. He was never heard of afterwards, and the 
situation of these islands became lost to the Welsh. 

The second loss was that of Merddin, who was 
the Bard of Emrys Wledig, or the Ambrosius of 
Saxon history, by whose command Stonehenge 
was erected. 

Merddin is held as one of the three Christian 
Bards of Wales, — Merddin Wyllt and Taliesin 
being the other two. 

This Merddin, with twelve Bards, went to sea, 
and they were heard of no more. 

The third loss of this remarkable triad was 
Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd, who, with three hun- 
dred men, went to sea in ten ships, and it is not 
known whither they went. 

About 1440 A.D., Meredydd ab Rhys, having 
obtained the loan of a fishing-net by a poem, sent 
a second poem with it when he returned it, and 
wrote thus : 

" Let Ivan, of a generous stock, 
Hunt, like his father, on the land; 
In good time, on the waters, I, 
By liberal aid, will hunter be. 



BY THE WELSH. o^ 

Madoc the brave, of aspect fair, 
Owain of Gwynedd's offspring true, 
Would have no land, — man of my soul ! — 
Nor any vi'ealth, except the seas, 
Madoc am I, who, through my life, 
By sea v^^ill seek my wonted prey." 

Madoc was a navigator, and made the sea his 
home. No doubt can be entertained on that point. 
In the above quotation the poet hkens himself to 
Madoc as the true type of a sailor. 

It has been said that the Welsh Bards were his- 
torians. They were retained in families of impor- 
tance to record the actions of their ancestors and 
those of the Bards themselves in odes and songs. 
While they may have employed a poetic license in 
their construction, the facts themselves were not 
lost out of sight. So far as can be known, it appears 
that these odes were written prior to any definite 
notion of a Western world, known subsequently as 
the American Continent. Madoc's voyages might 
not have been very familiar to many except the 
Welsh, and they were ignorant whither he went. 
One thing, however, is absolutely certain, that 
this tradition having existed for centuries could 
not have been invented, as some have suspected, 
to support the English against the Spanish claims 
of prior discovery. A period of three hundred 
and twenty-two years intervened between that of 
Madoc and that of Columbus. 

4 



34 . AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER IV. 

SUPPORTED BY WELSH AND OTHER HISTORIANS. 

Many valuable historical documents in prose 
and in poetry relating to the Welsh nation were 
destroyed by the order of Edward the First of 
England about the time that he so inhumanly 
massacred the Welsh Bards. He feared that their 
recitations of patriotic poetry among the people 
might serve to awaken and preserve the spirit of 
liberty and independence among them, and lead 
eventually to their casting off the yoke he was so 
cruelly imposing upon them. 

Sir John Wynne, who was born in 1553 and 
died in 1626, wrote the history of the Gwedir 
family, which remained in manuscript until pub- 
lished by Hon. Daines Barrington in 1773. It 
contains an enumeration of the various branches 
of the descendants of Owen Gwynedd, especially 
those who were claimed to be the more immediate 
ancestors of Sir John's family. He mentions 
Madoc as the son of Owen Gwynedd, but makes 
no reference to his voyages. He touches upon 
the subject of the massacre of the Bards by 
Edward the First, '' who," he says, " caused them 



BY THE WELSH. 



35 



all to be hanged by martial law as stirrers-up of 
the people to sedition." Some of the records of 
Welsh history were removed from their usually 
secure retreats in abbeys to London, as testified 
to by Sir John and others, particularly William 
Salesbury, who declared that they were burned, 
"and that there escaped not one that was not\ 
incurably maimed, and irrecuperably torn and 
mangled." 

This happened in the Tower, where, previous to 
their destruction, many of the political prisoners 
from Wales obtained leave to read " such books 
of their tongue as they most delighted in." 

In view of these facts, and considering that the 
history of the events contemporaneous with the 
period at which Madoc is alleged to have left his 
native land is unusually scanty on this subject, it is 
more than probable that some of these lost manu- 
scripts contained particular accounts of Madoc's 
departure. Fortunately, however, enough has es- 
caped the spoiler's hand to furnish such proof to 
every rational mind that the question must be 
regarded as settled. 

Caradoc, of Llancarvan, Glamorganshire, wrote, 
in his native language, a history of Wales. He 
lived at the time Owen Gwynedd was in the height 
of his power and fame, and was familiar with all 
the more important events in connection with his 
country. His history was translated into English 
by Humphrey Lloyd, and published by Dr. David 



36 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



Powel in the year 1584, and has been reprinted 
several times since. In it is contained the fol- 
lowing narrative, which bears all the semblance 
of historical truth that any narration of facts can. 
Its plainness, naturalness, and simplicity are at 
once evident : 

" On the death of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of 
North Wales, about the year 11 69, several of his 
children contended for his dominions ; and Madoc, 
one of his sons, perceiving his native land engaged, 
or on the eve of being engaged, in a civil war, 
thought it best to try his fortune in some foreign 
clime. Leaving North Wales in a very unsettled 
state, he sailed, with a few ships which he had fitted 
up and manned for that purpose, to the westward, 
leaving Ireland to the north. He came at length 
to an unknown country, where most things ap- 
peared to him new and uncustomary, and the man- 
ners of the natives far different from what he had 
seen in Europe. Madoc, having viewed the fer- 
tility and pleasantness of the country, left the most 
part of those he had taken with him behind (Sir 
Thomas Herbert says that the number he left be- 
hind was one hundred and twenty), and returned 
to North Wales. Upon his arrival he described to 
his friends what a fair and extensive land he had 
met with, void of any inhabitants, whilst they em- 
ployed themselves and all their skill to supplant 
one another for only a ragged portion of rocks 
and mountains. Accordingly, having prevailed 



BY THE WELSH. 



37 



with considerable numbers to accompany him to 
that country, he sailed back with ten ships, and 
bid adieu to his native land." There is an ap- 
parent contradiction between *' the manners of the 
natives" and " void of inhabitants." The historian 
meant to convey the idea by the latter phrase that 
the portion Madoc discovered was thinly peopled, 
and might be occupied without much difficulty. 

But it is conjectured that Caradoc's writings do 
not reach any lower than the year 1157, — which 
would be thirteen years earlier than the time of 
Madoc's departure, or 1 170. Some suppose that 
Caradoc must have died in 1157, because the Brut 
or Annales from which Humphrey Lloyd chiefly 
compiled his history of Cambria, and which bore 
Caradoc's name, did not extend beyond that year. 
There is no sound reason for this belief: many of 
the various Briits bore his name, and it is alto- 
gether likely that he was living when Madoc set 
sail and returned, prior to his final leave. It would 
not be wise, however, to dispute Humphrey Lloyd, 
Caradoc's translator into English, who says that 
that part of the history beyond 1 1 5 7, and, of course, 
that including Madoc's voyages, was compiled 
from collections made from time to time, and kept 
in the abbeys of Conway in Carnarvonshire, North 
Wales, and Strata Florida, Cardiganshire, South 
Wales. These and other abbeys were the reposi- 
tories of literature and history for many centuries, 
whose registers were carefully compared together 



38 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



every third year, when the Beirdd or Bards be- 
longing to these houses went on their customary 
visitations, which were called clera. This practice 
continued until the death of Prince Llewelyn, or 
a little prior, about the year 1270. If Caradoc 
did not continue his history beyond 1157, and 
that because of his death in that year, even then 
there is no reason to question the veracity of those 
monks of Conway and Strata- Florida who con- 
tinued the same history in their registers. Guttun 
Owen, a Bard in the reign of Edward the Fourth of 
England, about the year 1480 obtained one of the 
most perfect copies of these registers. He doubt- 
less had special facilities, since he was personally 
commissioned by Henry the Seventh to search the 
pedigree of Owen Tudor, that king's grandfather, 
among the Welsh annals. Another Bard about 
the same time with Guttun Owen mentioned this 
event. His name was Cynfrig ab Gronow. Thus, 
step by step, for the space of three hundred years, 
can be traced through Bards and historians this 
recital respecting Madoc, and all prior to the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus ; so that it cannot 
possibly be said that the claims afterwards advanced 
in favor of Madoc were an after-thought. 

Rev. Josiah Rees, the editor of a Welsh maga- 
zine published in Wales in 1770, told the Welsh 
scholar Edward Williams that he had in his pos- 
session at that time two or three fair manuscripts of 
Caradoc of Llancarvan, with the continuation by 



BY THE WELSH. 3^ 

the monks of Strata Florida, Guttun Owen, and 
others. He furthermore said that he had compared 
these originals with Dr. Powel's translation, or, 
more strictly speaking, with Humphrey Lloyd's 
translation, which Dr. Powel published in 1584. 
Mr. Rees said that it was the most faithful he ever 
met with in any language. Lord Lyttleton, in the 
last century, then, was very much mistaken, and 
withal quite ignorant, when he said that Dr. Powel 
"dressed up some tradition concerning Madoc in 
order to convey an idea that his countrymen had 
the honor of first discovering America." Dr. 
Powel himself did not entirely depend on Lloyd's 
translation in the preparation of the work for the 
press, for he says that he compared that translation 
with the original records, and therefore was able 
to correct his copy. All this proves that Caradoc's 
history, with the continuation from the registers of 
Conway and Strata Florida, the writings of Guttun 
Owen, Cynfrig ab Gronow, Sir Meredyth ab Rhys, 
and others, were extant in the days of Lloyd and 
Powel, and consequently these two latter historians 
would have been detected if they had been in any 
degree guilty of misrepresentation or forgery. 

In Hakluyt's " Collection of Voyages," a large 
and costly edition published in 1589, there is 
found, in connection with other important state- 
ments, the following : 

"After the death of Owen Gwynedd, his sons 
fell at debate who should inherit after him ; for the 



40 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

eldest son born in matrimony, lorweth, or Ed- 
ward (Drvvyndwn), was counted unmeet to govern, 
because of the maim upon his face, and Howel, 
that took upon him the rule, was a base son, 
begotten upon an Irishwoman. Therefore David, 
another son, gathered all the power he could, and 
came against Howel, and, fighting with him, slew 
him, and afterwards enjoyed quietly the whole land 
of North Wales until his brother Edward's son 
[Llewelyn] came to age. 

" Madoc, another of Owen Gwynedd's sons, left 
the land in contentions betwixt his brethren, and 
prepared certain ships with men and munition, 
and sought adventures by seas, sailing west, and 
leaving the coast of Ireland so far north that he 
came to a land unknown, where he saw many 
strange things. This land must needs be some 
part of the country of which the Spaniards affirm 
themselves to be the first finders since Hanno's time 
(the Carthaginian admiral, supposed to have flour- 
ished about four hundred and fifty years before 
Christ); whereupon it is manifest that that country 
was by Britons discovered long before Columbus 
led any Spaniards thither. 

" Of the voyage and return of this Madoc there 
be many fables framed, as the common people do 
use, in distance of place and length of time, rather 
to augment than to diminish; but sure it is, there 
he zvas. And after he had returned home and de- 
clared the pleasant and fruitful countries that he 



BY THE WELSTL 



41 



had seen, and, upon the contrary, for what barren 
and wild ground his brethren and nephews did 
murder one another, he prepared a number of 
ships, and got with him such men and women 
as were desirous to live in quietness, and, taking 
leave of his friends, took his journey thitherwards 
again. 

" Therefore it is supposed that he and his 
people inhabited part of those countries ; for it 
appears by Francis Lopez de Gomara that in 
Acuzamil, and other places, the people honored 
the cross. Whereby it may be gathered that 
Christians had been there before the coming of 
the Spaniards ; but, because this people were not 
many, they followed the manner of the land which 
they came to, and the language they found there. 
This Madoc, arriving in that western country, unto 
the which he came in the year 1170, left the most 
of his people there, and, returning back for more 
of his own nation, acquaintance, and friends to 
inhabit that fair and large country, went thither 
again with ten sails, as I find noted by GnWin 
Given. I am of opinion that the land whereunto 
he came was some part of the West Indies." 

It is worthy of observation that Hakluyt dis- 
tinctly says that he derived his account from 
Guttun Owen, and, therefore, from the original 
sources themselves, as it has been shown that 
Owen secured perfect copies from the abbeys. 
Hakluyt does not refer to Lloyd and Powel as his 



42 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

authorities, because he was fortunate in gaining 
access to the writings from which they too had 
compiled their histories. Thus the historical ve- 
racity of Lloyd and Powel is, without design, 
sustained by the learned Hakluyt. 

Another point that should not be passed is in 
relation to the last sentence of the extract just 
given, wherein Hakluyt expresses his opinion that 
Madoc touched the West Indies. It will be under- 
stood that during the earlier discoveries that name 
— West Indies — embraced not only those islands 
which are now known by it, but also so much of 
the continent or mainland as had been occupied. 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who as- 
cended the throne in 1558, the belief seems to have 
been universal that Madoc did sail and discover 
America; and most historical writers of the time 
have introduced the subject into their writings 
with the same credence that any other well-ascer- 
tained fact deserves. 

Hornius, in his ** De Originibus Americanis," 
gives an account of the same event. The fol- 
lowing is an extract translated from the Latin : 

** From hence he [Hakluyt] concludes that Ma- 
doc, with his Cambrians, discovered a part of North 
America. A cursory attention to the figure of the 
earth must convince every one that on this direc- 
tion he must have landed on that continent; for 
beyond Ireland no land can be found except Ber- 
muda to this day [1650] uncultivated but the ex- 



BY THE WELSH. 



43 



tensive continent of America. As Madoc directed 
his course westward, it cannot be doubted but that 
he fell in with Virginia or New England, and there 
settled. 

*' Nor is this contradicted by its being said that 
the country was uninhabited and uncultivated ; for 
that country is very extensive, and in our times, 
after six centuries, is but thinly peopled. Besides, 
that tract on which Madoc landed might be desert, 
and yet other places in the interior parts, pos- 
sessed by the barbarous Chichimecas, might be 
populous, with whom the Cambrians mingled, and, 
the communication being dropped between them 
and their mother-country, they adopted the lan- 
guage and manners of the country. The tradi- 
tions prevailing among the natives strongly con- 
firm me in this opinion ; for the Virginians and 
Guahutemallians, from ancient times, worshipped 
one Madoc as a hero. Concerning the Virginians, 
see Martyr, decade vii. chap. 3 ; concerning the 
Guahutemallians, decade viii. chap. 5. Among 
them we have Matec Zungam and Mat Ingam ; 
and why this should not be Madoc the Cambrian, 
whom the monuments in the country prove to have 
been in those parts, no reason can be given. As 
to antiquity, five centuries are sufficient, beyond 
which American traditions do not ascend." 

In another part he says, "For when it is demon- 
strated that Madoc, a prince of Cambria, with some 
of his nation, discovered and inhabited some lands in 



44 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



the West, and that his name and memory are still re- 
tained among them, scarcely any doubt remains." 

Peter Martyr, alluded to in the above extract, 
lived in the court of Ferdinand, King of Spain. 
He was the author of several works, among them 
the " Decades," which contain the references to 
Matec Zungam, or Madoc the Cambrian. He 
was at court when Columbus returned from his 
first voyage, and is considered good authority with 
respect to what he wrote about in those times. 
He distinctly affirms that some nations in America 
honored the memory of one Madoc when Colum- 
bus landed on that coast. 

Our next quotation will be from " Letters writ 
by a Turkish Spy," who lived forty-five years un- 
discovered in Paris, giving an impartial account to 
the Divan at Constantinople of the most remark- 
able transactions of Europe from the year 1673 
to 1682. They were originally written in Arabic. 
The author of this work, which caused a great 
sensation at the time, as well from the highly- 
interesting character of its contents as from the 
profound secrecy in which the name of the writer 
was long involved, was John Paul Marana, a 
native of Italy. He says, " This prince [Charles 
n.] has several nations under his dominions, and 
it is thought he scarce knows the just extent of 
his territories in America. There is a region on 
that continent inhabited by a people whom they 
call Tuscorards and Doegs. Their language is 



BY THE WELSH. 



45 



the same as is spoken by the Welsh. They are 
thought to descend from them. It is certain that 
when the Spaniards first conquered Mexico they 
were surprised to hear the inhabitants discourse 
of a strange people that formerly came thither 
in corraughs, who taught them the knowledge 
of God and immortality, instructed them also in 
virtue and morality, and prescribed holy rites and 
ceremonies of religion. 'Tis remarkable, also, 
what an Indian king said to a Spaniard, viz., that 
in foregoing ages a strange people arrived there by 
sea, to whom his ancestry gave hospitable entertain- 
ment, in regard they found them men of wit and 
courage, endued also with many other excellencies, 
but he could give no account of their original or 
name. The Welsh language is so prevalent in 
that country that the very towns, bridges, beasts, 
birds, rivers, hills, etc., are called by Welsh names. 
Who can tell the various transmigrations of mor- 
tals on earth, or trace out the true originals of any 
people?" 

Sir Thomas Herbert visited Persia and many 
other countries about 1626, and in connection with 
his travels mentioned Madoc's emigration to the 
West. He states that Madoc embarked at Aber- 
gwilly, and first reached Newfoundland, whence, 
coasting along, he in time came to a convenient 
place for settlement; that, after recruiting the 
health of his men, and fortifying the spot he had 
pitched upon, leaving a hundred and twenty of his 



46 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



crew, he returned to Wales, and conducted back to 
his new home a fleet of ten barks, and found but 
few of those he left remaining. With the aid of 
Einon and Idwal, he soon put things in order 
again, and waited vainly for the arrival of other 
emigrants from Wales, of those who were to have 
followed him; but none came, owing to the wars 
with England. Sir Thomas concludes by saying 
that " had this voyage of the Prince of Gwynedd 
been known and inherited, tJien had not Colinnbiis, 
Amcricus Vespuchis, Magellan, nor otluTS, carried 
azvay the honor of so great a discovejy, nor had 
Madoc been defrauded of his memory, nor our kings 
of their just title to a portion of the West Indies'' 



BY THE WELSH. 



47 



CHAPTER V. 

THE NARRATIVE OF REV. MORGAN JONES. 

In the year 1740 there appeared in the "Gen- 
tleman's Magazine," London, England, a very re- 
markable narration, written by Rev. Morgan Jones. 
It is as follows : 

"These presents may certify all persons what- 
ever, that in the year 1660, being an inhabitant 
of Virginia, and chaplain to Major-General Bennet, 
of Mansoman County, the said Major Bennet and 
Sir William Berkeley sent two ships to Port Royal , 
now called South Carolina, which is sixty leagues 
to the southward of Cape Fair, and I was sent 
therewith to be their minister. Upon the 8th of 
April we set out from Virginia, and arrived at the 
harbor's mouth of Port Royal the 19th of the same 
month, where we waited for the rest of the fleet, 
that was to sail from Barbadoes and Bermuda, 
with one Mr. West, who was to be Deputy Gov- 
ernor of said place. As soon as the fleet came 
in, the smallest vessels that were with us sailed 
up the river to a place called the Oyster Point. 
Here I continued about eight months, all which 
time being almost starved for want of provisions, 



48 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



five others, with myself, travelled through the wil- 
derness till we came to the Tuscarora Country. 
Here the Tuscarora Indians took us prisoners, 
because we told them that we were bound to 
Roanoke. That night they carried us to their 
town, and shut us up close, to our no small dread. 
The next day they entered into a consultation 
about us, which after it was over, their interpreter 
told us that we must prepare ourselves to die 
next morning. Whereupon, being very much 
dejected, and speaking to this effect in the British 
tongue : Have I escaped so many dangers, and 
must I now be knocked on the head like a dog? 
then presently an Indian came to me, which after- 
wards appeared to be a war-captain belonging to 
the sachem of the Doegs (whose original I find 
must needs be from the old Britons), and took 
me up by the middle, and told me in the British 
tongue I should not die, and thereupon went to 
the Emperor of the Tuscaroras, and agreed for my 
ransom and the men who were with me. They 
then welcomed us to their town, and entertained 
us very civilly and cordially four months, during 
which time I had the opportunity of conversing 
with them familiarly in the British language, and 
did preacJi to them tlwee times a week in the same lan- 
guage, and they would confer with me about any- 
thing that was difficult therein. At our departure 
they abundantly supplied us with whatever was 
necessary to our support and well-doing. They 



BY THE WELSH. 



49 



are settled upon Pontigo River, not far from Cape 
Atros [Hatteras]. This is a brief recital of my 
travels among the Doeg Indians. 

" Morgan Jones, 
" Son of John Jones, Basaleg, 
near Newport, County of Monmouth. 
" I am ready to conduct any Welshmen or others 
to the country. 

" New York, March lo, 1685-6," 

It appears that the origin of this narration came 
about in the following way, as described by Charles 
Lloyd, Esq., of D61 y Fran, Montgomeryshire, in a 
letter which he has written. He says, " My brother, 
Dr. Thomas Lloyd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
having heard of Rev. Morgan Jones's adventures, 
and meeting him in New York, desired him to 
write them out with his own hand in his house ; 
and to please me and my cousin, Thomas Price, of 
Llanvyllin, he sent me the original. Mr. Jones 
was living then within twelve miles of New York, 
and was contemporary with me and my brother 
at Oxford. He was of Jesus College, and called 
there 'Senior Jones,' by way of distinction." 

The original was given to Dr. Thomas Lloyd, 
and transmitted to his brother, as mentioned 
above; subsequently it came into the possession of 
Dr. Robert Plott, through Edward Lloyd, A.M., 
keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the 
former having maintained in his writings his im- 

5* 



so 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



plicit belief in Madoc's emigration and Mr, Jones's 
narrative. Rev. Theophilus Evans afterwards com- 
municated the narration to the " Gentleman's Mag- 
azine." He was a Welsh clergyman, vicar of St. 
David's in Brecon, and well versed in the history 
of his nation. It is to be regretted that other 
accounts of the travels of Mr. Jones among the 
Doegs of the Tuscaroras, which were published 
at an earlier period, have not been preserved, in- 
asmuch as they would materially assist in more 
fully establishing the veracity of the writer. As 
it is, however, it does not appear that his truth- 
fulness has ever been questioned. He was an edu- 
cated man, a graduate of Oxford, and not likely to 
be mistaken or led into an easy credulity. He is 
explicit as to the mode of his rescue, while engaged 
in prayer and deploring his wretched fate, the time 
he remained among them, his conversing with them 
and explaining anything difficult between them, — 
nothing unreasonable to expect, after the lapse of 
so many centuries, — his preaching to them three 
times a week. AH these things, taken in connec- 
tion with his accurate description of the location 
of this tribe, must impress the candid reader that 
this clergyman gave a recital of unvarnished facts. 
At the time Mr. Jones was captured, the Tus- 
caroras inhabited a range of country that extended 
from Virginia down into the Carolinas. They com- 
prised several branches, known as Doegs, Cho- 
wans, Meherrins, and Nottoways, who dwelt along 



BY THE WELSH. 



51 



the rivers bearing some of their names. They 
were often called the Southern Iroquois, because 
they were chiefly kindred in dialect with the main 
body of that mighty confederacy, the Five Nations, 
or Iroquois proper. They made frequent incur- 
sions into the territory of the Carolinians, by 
whom they were severely defeated in 17 12: large 
numbers were taken prisoners, while the remainder 
fled northward and formed the sixth nation of the 
celebrated Iroquois Confederacy. Iroquois was a 
term applied to this confederacy by the French ; 
Mingoes was the name given to those composing 
it by the great Algonquin race of red men, by 
whom they were largely surrounded, and with 
whom they were almost incessantly engaged in 
bloody and decimating wars. 

The Five Nations called themselves Konoskioni, 
or " Cabin-Builders." The territory they occupied 
when Europeans obtained a more general acquaint- 
ance with them, which embraced New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and portions of the Caro- 
linas, evidently had not been in their possession a 
very great length of time. From all that can be 
ascertained, they came from the west, in an easterly 
direction, crossing the Nauraesi Sipu (Mississippi), 
and made war upon another nation, called the Al- 
ligewi or AUeghanians, destroyed their works, and 
drove them into the interior, the conquerors taking 
possession of the eastern country. Now, who were 
these Alligewi? That they were expelled from 



52 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



the lands held by the Five Nations there can be 
no doubt; that they moved westward is equally 
certain. But who were they? They were sup- 
posed to be w^hites. McCulloh, in his " Researches 
on America," says that an exterminating war ap- 
pears to have taken place between the barbarous 
natives (Iroquois) and their more refined and civ- 
ilized neighbors, ending in the nearly total destruc- 
tion of the latter, the few survivors o{ whom fled 
to happier climes; and to these aboriginal whites, 
perhaps, the Mexicans were indebted for their re- 
finement and knowledge. Traces of these Alli- 
gewi are found throughout those portions of the 
country of the Eastern States once held by them, 
afterwards by Iroquois. Their line of march west- 
ward may be clearly traced by the earthen forti- 
fications they threw up for purposes of defence 
against their savage and wily enemies. Almost 
without exception the traditions of the red men 
ascribe the construction of these works to white 
men. Some of them belonging to different tribes 
at the present say that they had understood from 
their prophets and old men that it had been a tra- 
dition among their several nations that the eastern 
country and Ohio and Kentucky had once been 
inhabited by white people, but that they were 
mostly exterminated at the Falls of Ohio. The 
red men drove the whites to a small island (Sandy 
Island) below the rapids, where they were cut to 
pieces. Kentuckce, \\\ Indian, signifies river of 



BY THE WELSH. 



53 



blood. Some of the fragments of the ancient tribe 
of the Sacs expressed astonishment to a gentle- 
man at St. Louis that any person should live in 
Kentucky. The country, they said, had been the 
scene of much blood, and was filled with the 
manes of the butchered inhabitants, who were 
white people. 

The westward movements of the tribes which 
were overpowered and displaced by the Iroquois 
are distinctly marked, and show that a European 
civilization had some influence in directing the con- 
struction of those lines of defences along the largest 
valleys and streams of the countries through which 
they passed, until, arriving at the Ohio, they made 
a vigorous stand, with the resolution not to be 
driven any farther into the interior. This will 
account for the much greater number of earthen 
defences found along the Ohio, and, besides, agrees 
with the traditions of the red men. When, how- 
ever, defeated here, after a residence extending over 
many years, the remnants of those tribes which 
survived the bloody battles fled up the Missouri. 

But who were these Alligewi, or Alligenians ? 
The word is strikingly familiar to the Welsh ear, 
with its double /, and corresponds with the Welsh 
words alii, mighty, and ge?ii, born, or " mighty 
born." 

Although the Tuscaroras, among whom Mr. 
Jones lived and preached, were supposed to be akin 
to the Iroquois in language and finally confederated 



54 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



with them, it is altogether probable that they 
were more anciently a branch of the Alligewi, 
who could not be driven from their soil. These 
Tuscaroras were lighter in color than the other 
tribes, and so noticeable was this peculiarity that 
they were generally mentioned as White Indians. 
Emanating from this source, many travellers subse- 
quently applied the title to tribes through whose 
boundaries they passed in the West and South. 
Doubtless they had a common origin. 

They stated that their ancestors were Welsh. 
If the objection is made, how they could have lost 
traces of European civilization so soon, it may be 
recollected that the buccaneers of St. Domingo 
had in thirty years forgotten all knowledge of 
Christianity. Such radical differences as exist 
between the white and red races could not have 
been lost without the lapse of centuries; while 
their languages would undergo, more or less, some 
marked modifications. Dr. Williams, writing upon 
this subject in his ** Enquiry," published in 1791, 
says, " When it is considered that Mr. Jones's 
visit to these nations was nearly five hundred years 
after the emigration of Prince Madoc, it can be no 
wonder that the language of both Mr. Jones and 
the Indians was very much altered. After so long 
a period, Mr. Jones must have been obliged to 
make use of words and phrases in preaching 
Christianity with which they must have been alto- 
gether unacquainted. Besides, all living languages 



BY THE WELSH. 



55 



are continually changing : therefore, during so 
many centuries, the original tongue must have 
been very much altered, by the introduction of 
new words borrowed from the inhabitants of the 
country. Though the language was radically the 
same, yet Mr. Jones, especially when treating of 
abstract subjects, was hardly intelligible to them 
without some explanations. We are told that the 
religious worship of the Mexicans, with all its ab- 
surdities, was less superstitious than that of the 
ancient and learned Greeks and Romans. May 
we not conclude that the Mexicans derived some 
part of their religious knowledge from a people 
enlightened by a Divine revelation, which, though 
very much corrupted in the days of Madoc, yet 
was superior to heathen darkness ?" 

Many of the names mentioned by Mr. Jones in 
his narrative seem to have a Welsh origin, and 
bear a precisely similar sound to words in that 
language. 

Pontigo — a name applied to a river in that coun- 
try where he found them — seems derived from 
Pont y Go, ** The Smith's Bridge," or Pant y Go, 
'' The Smith's Valley ;" a smith dwelling beside a 
river or bridge being sufficient to originate such 
a name. Dr. Robertson says, in his " History of 
America," vol. ii. p. 126, that "the Indians were 
very ignorant of the use of metals ; artificers in 
metals were scarce, and on that account a name 
might be given to a bridge or valley where one 



56 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



dwelt." Doeg Indians might be a corruption of 
Madog's Indians. The majority of those who 
have had any convictions on this subject have 
beheved that Madoc first landed with his colony 
somewhere in New England, and that they then 
moved down the coast and inhabited portions of 
the country between Virginia and Florida. New 
England has some vestiges of European civiliza- 
tion which were there before the Pilgrim Fathers 
landed. The celebrated round tower at Newport, 
Rhode Island, about the origin of which tradition 
and history are silent, is certainly constructed on 
the same principle as Stonehenge, England, and 
many other Cambrian memorials. It conforms 
exactly to the Druidic circle. Its materials are 
unhewn stone. It rests upon eight round columns, 
twenty-three feet in diameter, and twenty-four feet 
in height. Any person familiar with Cambrian 
and Scandinavian archaeology will not hesitate to 
attribute the construction of this tower rather to 
the Cambrian than to the Scandinavian navigators. 

A letter written by Charles Lloyd, Esq., of D61 
y Fran, in Montgomeryshire, already mentioned, 
published in 1777 by Rev. N. Owen, jun., A.M., in 
a pamphlet entitled " British Remains," strongly 
confirms Mr. Jones's narrative, and the truth of 
Madoc's voyages. 

Mr. Lloyd says that he had been informed by a 
friend that a Mr. Stedman, of Breconshire, about 
thirty years before the date of his letter, was on 



BY THE WELSH. 



57 



the coast of America in a Dutch bottom, and 
being about to land for refreshment the natives 
kept them off by force, till at last this Stedman 
told his fellow Dutch seamen that he understood 
what the natives spoke. The Dutch bade him 
speak to them, and they were thereupon very 
courteous; they supplied them with the best 
things they had, and told Stedman that they 
came from a country called Gwynedd (North 
Wales), in Prydain Fawr (Great Britain). Prydain 
was the son of Hugh the Mighty, and supposed 
to have been the first to establish government and 
set up royalty in the isle of Britain, and the island 
was called by his name. Mr. Lloyd said that Mr. 
Stedman found these Welsh Indians along the 
coast between Virginia and Florida. Further- 
more, this gentleman said that a Mr. Oliver Hum- 
phreys, a merchant, who died not long before the 
date of Mr. Lloyd's letter, told him that when he 
lived at Surinam he spoke with an English priva- 
teer, or pirate, who, being near Florida, careening 
his vessel, had learned, as he thought, the Indian 
language, which his friend said was perfect Welsh. 
It is to be regretted that Rev. Morgan Jones 
and these others could not have given more of 
the traditional history of these Indians ; but what 
they have recited is explicit. Here is no collu- 
sion, no attempt to meet the tradition concerning 
Madoc, for they, in all probability, knew nothing 
about it. 

6 



58 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



If the Welsh Indians could be identified as 
descendants of Madoc's colony, or if the Alligewi 
could be ascertained to have been the Welsh, the 
discovered traces of civilization, Christianity, and 
the arts might partly be referred to their instru- 
mentality. They may have contributed to swell 
the tide of population, and aided in constructing 
those forts and works which so much resemble 
those of their own country. Our American 
mounds agree in the minutest particulars with 
those described by Pennant as found during his 
" Tour in Wales." 

This is the opinion of De Laet, Hornius, 
Mitchel, and others. 



BV THE WELSH. 



59 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NARRATIVE OF REV. CHARLES BEATTY. 

In a " Journal of a Two Months' Tour," written 
by Rev. Charles Beatty, A.M., and dedicated to the 
Earl of Dartmouth, London, 1768, the author pre- 
sents a sketch of a visit to some of the inland parts 
of North America during the year 1766. He was 
accompanied by a Mr. Dufifield. Mr. Beatty was 
a missionary from New York, and travelled several 
hundred miles in a southwest direction from that 
city. During his tour he met several persons who 
had been among the Indians from their youth, or 
who had been taken captives by them and lived 
with them several years. 

When at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, 
Pennsylvania, he stopped at the house of Mr. John 
Miller, where he met with one Benjamin Sutton, 
who had been taken captive by the Indians, had 
been in different nations, and had lived many years 
among them. He informed Mr. Beatty and his 
companion that "when he was with the Choctaw 
nation or tribe of Indians, at the Mississippi, he 
went to an Indian town a very considerable distance 
from New Orleans, whose inhabitants were of dif- 



6o AMERICA DISCOVERED 

\ ferent complexions, — not so tawny as those of the 
other Indians, — and who spoke Welsh. He said 
that he saw a book among them, which he supposed 
was a Bible, which they kept carefully wrapped up 
in a skin, but they could not read it;- and that he 
heard some of these Indians afterwards in the lower 
Shawanese town speak Welsh with one Lewis, a 
Welshman, who was a captive there. This Welsh 
tribe now live on the west side of the Mississippi, 
a great way above New Orleans." 

At Tuscarora Valley — a name, be it remem- 
bered, the same as that of the tribe among which 
Rev. Morgan Jones found those speaking Welsh 
— Mr. Beatty met with another man, natned Levi 
Hicks, who had been a captive from his youth. 
He said that he " was once attending an embassy 
at an Indian town on the west side of the Missis- 
sippi, where the inhabitants spoke Welsh (as he 
was told, for he did not understand them) ; and 
our Indian interpreter, Joseph Peepy, said he once 
saw some Indians, whom he supposed to be of 
the same tribe, who talked Welsh. He was sure 
that it was Welsh, for he had been acquainted 
with Welsh people and understood some words. 

" Mr. Sutton farther told us that he had often 
heard the following traditions among them ; that of 
old time their people were divided by a river, and 
one part tarrying behind ; that they knew not for 
certainty how they first came to this continent, but 
account for their coming into these parts near 



BY THE WELSH. 6 1 

where they are now settled ; that a king of their 
nation left his kingdom to his two sons ; that the 
one son making war upon the other the latter 
thereupon determined to depart and seek some 
new habitation ; that accordingly he set out ac- 
companied by a number of his people, and that 
after wandering to and fro for the space of forty 
years they at length came to the Delaware River, 
where they settled, three hundred and seventy 
years ago. The way, he says, they keep an ac- 
count of this is by putting a black bead of wam- 
pum every year since on a belt they had for that 
purpose. He farther added that the king of that 
country from whence they came, some years ago, 
when the French were in possession of Fort 
Duquesne (Pittsburg), sent out some of his people 
in order, if possible, to find out that part of their 
nation that departed to seek a new country, and 
that these men, after seeking six years, came at 
lenVrth to the Pickt Town, on the Ouabache River, 
and there happened to meet with a Delaware 
Indian named Jack, after the English, whose lan- 
guage they could understand; and that by him 
they were conducted to the Delaware towns, 
where they tarried one year, and returned ; that 
the French sent a white man with them, prop- 
erly furnished, to bring back an account of their 
country, who, the Indians said, could not return 
in less than fourteen years, for they lived a great 
way toward the setting sun. It is now, Sutton 

6* 



52 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

says, about ten or twelve years since they went 
away." 

Dr. Williams, who wrote upon this subject, 
thought that these traditions referred to the un- 
settled state of North Wales, the departure of 
Madoc, and his travels before he finally settled. 

It would not be surprising if Mr. Beatty's In- 
dian interpreter, Joseph Peepy, had been among 
Welsh people in Pennsylvania, for large colonies 
of Welsh settled, in early colonial days, in and 
around Philadelphia. "The Welsh Tract" is still 
well known. William Penn and his family were 
of Welsh extraction. A large number of his fol- 
lowers were Welshmen. Philadelphia contains a 
larger proportion of Welsh descendants than any 
other city in the United States. The first mayor 
of the city, Anthony Morris, and the first Gov- 
ernor of the colony of Pennsylvania, Thomas 
Lloyd, were both Welshmen. 

These colonies extended more and more into 
the interior, and came in contact with the nearest 
tribes. Traffic was carried on between them, and 
in this way Mr. Beatty's interpreter became some- 
what acquainted with the Welsh tongue. After- 
wards, penetrating far into the intei^ior, where he 
spent many years, he found, as he informed Mr. 
Beatty, Indians speaking the same language he 
had heard among the Welsh people of Pennsyl- 
vania. To his testimony is added that of Ben- 
jamin Sutton and Levi Hicks, each independent 



BY THE WELSH. 



63 



of and consistent with the other. By means of 
these, and others, the residents of Pennsylvania 
were made acquainted with the existence of Welsh 
Indians. It is not at all likely that all, if indeed 
any, of them then knew of the historical records 
in Wales relating to Madoc ; it was afterwards that 
they found out there were such. 

The Rev. Thomas Jones, of Nottage, in the 
county of Glamorgan, came to America in 1737. 
His son, Samuel, was then about three years of 
age. He gave him a liberal education in Phila- 
delphia, where he took the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. He, (Dr.) Samuel Jones, wrote a letter 
to Rev. William Richards, of Lynn, in Norfolk. 
In that letter, speaking of the Madocian Indians, 
he says, " The finding of them would be one of 
the most pleasing things to me that could happen. 
I think I should go immediately amongst them, 
though I am now turned fifty-five; and there are 
in America Welsh preachers ready to set out to 
visit them as soon as the way to their country is 
discovered. I know now several in Pennsylvania 
who have been amongst those Indians." , 

The following words are in a letter from Mr. 
Reynold Howells -to a Mr. Mills, dated Philadel- 
phia, _i 7^5 2: "The Welsh Indians are found out: 
they are situated on the west side of the great 
river Mississippi." 

William Pritchard, a bookseller and printer of 
Philadelphia, when in London, in 1791, told some 



64 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



Welsh scholars, among them Mr. Owen and Dr. 
Williams, that he had often heard of the Welsh 
Indians, that in Pennsylvania they were univer- 
sally believed to be very far westward of the Mis- 
sissippi, that he had often heard of people who 
had been among them, and that if he should be 
but very little assisted he should immediately visit 
them. 

A writer in the " Mount Joy Herald," after 
alluding to Powel's ** History" upon this subject, 
which has been quoted already, gives this addi- 
tional extract from the same : — " Three hundred 
and twenty-two years after this date, — Madoc's 
departure, — when Columbus discovered this con- 
tinent a second time and returned to Europe to 
make his report, it caused great excitement, and 
he was justly applauded. But his enemies, and 
those who envied his fame, boldly charged him 
with acquiring his knowledge from the charts and 
manuscripts of Madoc. In the year 1854 I had 
a conversation with an old Indian prophet, who 
styled himself the fifteenth in the line of succession. 
He told me, in broken English, that long ago a race 
of white people had lived at the mouth of Cones- 
toga Creek, who had red hair and blue eyes, who 
cleared the land, fenced, plowed, raised grain, etc., 
that they introduced the honey-bee, unknown to 
them. He said the Indians called them the VVel- 
egcens, and that in the time of the fifth prophet 
the Conesto^ra Indians made war with them, and, 



BY THE WELSH. 65 

after great slaughter on both sides, the white/ 
V settlers were driven away. Our fathers and grand- 
fathers used to tell us what a hatred and prejudice 
the Conestoga Indians had against red-haired and 
blue-eyed people in all their wars in Eastern Penn- 
sylvania. When taking white prisoners, they would 
discriminate between the black-haired and the red, 
showing mercy to the former, and reserving the 
latter for torture and death. This would seem to 
indicate that they knew from tradition of Prince 
Madoc and his followers, and of the fearful fight 
they had made. 

"About the year 1800 (for I must quote from 
memory), a man diggihg a cellar in the vicinity of 
the Indian Steppes came upon a lot of small iron 
axes, thirty-six in number. My father, who re- 
sided in Manor township and followed blacksmith- 
ing, was presented with one of these relics; and 
I recollect seeing it in his shop twenty-five years 
after that date. It was curiously constructed; 
the eye was joined after the fashion of the old 
garden hoe ; it had no pole end, and had never 
been ground to an edge, nor had the others ever 
been. It had lain so long in the ground that the 
eye was almost eaten through with rust; and its 
construction was so ancient that I looked upon it 
as the first exodus from the stone to the iron axe." 
Rev. Morgan Jones, of Hammersmith, Eng- 
land, wrote a letter to Dr. John Williams, in which 
he says that his father and his family went to 



66 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

Pennsylvania about the year 1 750, where he met 
with several persons whom he knew in Wales, — 
one in particular with whom he had been intimate. 
This person had formerly lived in Pennsylvania, 
but then lived in North Carolina. Upon his re- 
turn to Pennsylvania, the following year, to settle 
his affairs, they met a second time. Mr. Jones's 
friend told him that he then was very sure there 
were Welsh Indians, and gave as a reason, that 
his house in North Carolina was situated on the 
great Indian road to Charlestown, where he often 
lodged parties of them. In one of these parties, 
an Indian, hearing the family speak Welsh, began 
to jump and caper as if he had been out of his 
senses. Being asked what was the matter with 
him, he replied, " I know an Indian nation who 
speak that language, and have learnt a little of it 
myself by living among them;" and when exam- 
ined, he was found to have some knowledge of it. 
When asked where they lived, he said, "A great 
way beyond the Mississippi." Being promised a 
handsome reward, he said that he would endeavor 
to bring some of them to that part of the country; 
but Mr. Jones, soon after returning to England, 
never heard any more of the Indian. 

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for July, 1791, 
page 612, Mr. Edward Williams says that about 
twenty years prior he became acquainted with a 
Mr. Binon, of Coyty, in the county of Glamorgan, 
who had been absent from his native country over 



BY THE WELSH. 



67 



thirty years. Mr. Binon said he had been an 
Indian trader from Philadelphia for several years ; 
that about the year 1750 he and five or six others 
penetrated much farther than usual to the west- 
ward of the Mississippi, and found a nation of 
Indians who spoke the Welsh tongue. They had 
iron among them, lived in stone built villages, and 
were better clothed than the other tribes. They 
gave Mr. Binon a kind reception, but were sus- 
picious of his companions, taking them for Span- 
iards or Frenchmen, with whom they seemed to 
be at war. They showed him a manuscript book, 
which they carefully kept, believing that it con- 
tained the mysteries of religion, and said that it 
was not long since a man had beeji among them 
zvho it7iderstood it. This man, whom they esteemed 
a prophet (could it have been the Rev. Morgan 
Jones ?), told them, they said, that a people would 
some time visit them and explain to them the 
mysteries contained in their book, which would 
make them completely happy. They very anx- 
iously asked Mr. Binon if he understood it, and, 
being answered in the negative, they appeared 
very sad, and earnestly desired him to send some 
one to them who could explain it. After he and 
his fellow-travellers had been for some time 
among them, they departed, and were conducted 
by those friendly Indians through vast deserts, 
and were supplied by them with plenty of pro- 
visions, which the woods afforded ; and after they 



58 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

had been brought to a place they well knew, 
they parted with their numerous Indian guides, 
who wept bitterly on their taking leave, and very 
urgently entreated them to send a person to them 
who could interpret their book. On Mr. Binon's 
arrival in Philadelphia, and relating the story, he 
found that the inhabitants of the Welsh Tract 
had some knowledge of these Indians, and that 
some Welshmen had been among them. He 
also learned then that on several occasions parties 
of thirty and forty of these Welsh Indians had 
visited the Welsh settled on the Tract near Phila- 
delphia. Mr. Binon furthermore said that when 
he told those Indians, whom he had visited, that 
he came from Wales, they replied, " It was from 
thence our ancestors came, but we do not now 
know in what part of the world Wales is." 

Mr. Edward Wilh'ams, who gave to the world 
the above account from Mr. Binon, also had an 
interview with a Mr. Richard Burnell, a gentleman 
who went to America about the year 1763, and 
who returned to England when the American war 
broke out. 

During Mr. Burnell's residence in and near 
Philadelphia, he became well acquainted with the 
Welsh people, who informed him that the Welsh 
Indians were well known to many in Pennsylvania. 
He personally knew Mr. Beatty, whose narrative 
opens this chapter, and a Mr. Lewis, who saw some 
of these Welsh Indians in a congress among the 



BY THE WELSH. 



69 



Chickasaws, with whom and the Natchez Mr. Bur- 
nell says they are in alliance. He also said that 
there was in Philadelphia a Mr. Willin, a very rich 
Quaker, who had obtained a grant of a large ex- 
tent of country on the Mississippi, in the district 
of the Natchez; and, having taken with him a great 
number of settlers, he had among them Welshmen 
who understood the Indians. Mr. Burnell, anxious 
to be informed, waited upon Mr, Willin, who as- 
sured him that among his colony there were two 
Welshmen who perfectly understood the Indians 
and would converse with them for hours together, 
and that these Welshmen had often assured him the 
Indians spoke the Welsh language ; that some of 
them were settled in those parts, some on the 
west side of the Mississippi, and others in remote 
parts. At this time Mr. Burnell had a son, Cradog 
Burnell, settled at Buck's Island, near Augusta, 
Georgia. He was a capital trader in the back set- 
tlements. A company of about a hundred persons 
had purchased forty millions of acres from the 
Natchez and Yazoos along the Mississippi and the 
rivers Yazoo and Tombecbe, which fall into it. 
Mr. Burnell's son was connected with this large 
colony ; and he said that probably his son knew 
more about these Welsh Indians " than any man 
living. He had the best opportunities, for he reads 
and writes the Welsh language extremely well." 

If it be granted that Mr. Binon saw a manu- 
script book among those whom he visited, and that 

7 



70 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

neither they nor he could read it, that would not 
be surprising ; for many persons of greater intel- 
ligence in these times cannot read old books in 
the manuscript or old-style print of centuries ago. 
Most of them were written in the Roman char- 
acter ; but there are some in the Greek character, 
which, transferred to the Welsh or old English, 
would demand scholarship to interpret. 

Let it be borne in mind, too, that the time is 
not very far back when it was considered quite an 
accomplishment for kings and queens to be able 
simply to read. There are books in manuscript 
and print in the public libraries of the world, 
dating back many centuries, which cannot be read 
and understood by those in whose vernacular they 
were written or printed. 

Enough recitals have been added to the narra- 
tive of Rev. Charles Beatty to render it absolutely 
certain that in his time and during his tour through 
Pennsylvania there existed a firm conviction, based 
on personal knowledge and experience, that there 
was a tribe of Indians who spoke the Welsh lan- 
guage ; that they formerly had occupied the east- 
ern portions of the country, but, pressed by their 
enemies, red and white, they had retreated farther 
and farther into the interior, and had become 
broken into scattering fragments, incorporating 
themselves in some cases with other tribes. Can 
they be pursued by the antiquary or the historian ? 
Let the succeeding pages answer. 



BY THE WELSH. 



71 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WELSH INDIANS MOVING WEST. 

Modern investigations and discoveries show 
that there once existed an ahnost unbroken sys- 
tem of defences, extending from New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas, in a diagonal 
direction, to the valley of the Ohio, and thence 
into the great basin of the Mississippi. These 
works increase in size and number as they advance 
towards the centre, and may properly be classified 
into forts for defence and tumuli or mounds for 
sepulture. They are chiefly found along the fertile 
valleys through which run large rivers, and at their 
junctions with one another. It is quite usual with 
writers on these remarkable works to assign to 
them so great an antiquity that the employment of 
figures is almost useless if they tell the truth. But 
there are substantial reasons for the belief that 
they were erected by the Welsh, aided by those 
Indians with whom they became incorporated and 
whom they directed irj their labor. The route 
they took, either by choice or necessity, and the 
exact correspondence of these earthen monuments 
with those found in England and Europe known 



72 



A ME RICA DISCO VERRD 



to be of Cambrian origin, go very far to support 
this belief. 

In Onondaga, New York, there are vestiges of 
ancient settlements dating back beyond the time 
when the council-fires of the Six Nations burned 
there. These are protected by three circular forts. 

Isaac Chapman, Esq., says, in his ** History of 
Wyoming," Pennsylvania, " In the valley of Wyo- 
ming there exist some remains of ancient fortifi- 
cations, which appear to have been constructed by 
a race of people very different in their habits from 
those who occupied the place when first discovered 
by the whites. Most of these ruins have been so 
obliterated by the operations of agriculture that 
their forms cannot now be distinctly ascertained. 
That which remains the most entire was examined 
by the writer during the summer of 1817, and its 
dimensions carefully ascertained, although from 
frequent plowing its form had become almost de- 
stroyed. It is situated in the township of Kings- 
ton, upon a level plain, on the north side of Toby's 
Creek, about one hundred and fifty feet from its 
bank, and about half a mile from its confluence 
with the Susquehanna. From present appearances, 
it consisted probably of only one mound, which 
in height and thickness appears to have been the 
same on all sides, and was constructed of earth, 
the plain on which it stands not abounding in 
stone. On the outside of the rampart is an in- 
trenchment, or ditch. When the first settlers came 



BY THE WELSH. 



73 



to Wyoming, this plain was covered with its native 
forest, consisting principally of oak and yellow 
pine, and the trees which grew in the rampart and 
the intrenchment are said to have been as large as 
those in any other part of the valley; one large 
oak particularly, upon being cut down, was ascer- 
tained to be seven Jiundred years old. The Indians 
had no tradition concerning these fortifications ; 
neither did they appear to have any knowledge 
of the purposes for which they were constructed. 
They were, perhaps, erected about the same time 
with those upon the waters of the Ohio, and 
probably by a similar people and for similar 
purposes." 

Directly opposite, on the eastern bank of the 
Susquehanna, a little above the city of Wilkes- 
barre, another fortification has been discovered and 
measured, and found to have been of precisely the 
same size and dimensions as that described by Mr. 
Chapman. 

In these earthen works, and along the banks of 
the river up as far as Towanda, have been found 
human skeletons, — as many as six at one time 
having been washed out from old fire-places by 
the freshets, — large earthen vessels, and relics of 
various kinds. One of these earthen vessels was 
twelve feet in diameter, thirty-six feet in circum- 
ference, and three inches thick. It was found on 
the farm of a Mr. Kinney. Relics of iron instru- 
ments have also been found — which agrees with 

7-x- 



74 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



a remarkable tradition of the Shawanese Indians 
who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, "that 
the coasts were inhabited by white men who used 
iron instruments." 

Six buttons were also discovered bearing on 
their faces the mennaid, the coat of arms of the 
Principality of Wales. 

Passing thence westward to the streams which 
empty into the Ohio, — the Alleghany, Mononga- 
hela, Muskingum, — and down the Ohio itself on 
both sides, many wonderful earthen remains have 
been brought to view, those circular in form being 
the most frequent. They show, too, that they 
were constructed by a people who were migrating 
from one part of the country to another through 
the pressure of enemies or the inducement of more 
fertile lands. 

In the year 1784, Mr. John Filson published a 
pamphlet entitled " The Discovery, Settlement, and' 
Present State of Kentucky," wherein, after men- 
tioning the story of Madoc, he has these words : 
" This account has at different times drawn the 
attention of the world ; but, as no vestiges of them 
[the Welsh] had then been found, it was concluded, 
perhaps too rashly, to be a fable, — at least, that no 
remains of the colony existed. But of late years the 
Western settlers have received frequent accounts 
of a nation at a great distance up the Missouri 
(a branch of the Mississippi) in manners and ap- 
pearance resembling other Indians, but speaking 



BY THE WELSH. 



75 



Welsh and retaining some ceremonies of the Chris- 
tian worship ; and at length this is universally 
believed to be fact. Captain Abraham Chaplain, 
a gentleman whose veracity may be entirely de- 
pended upon, assured me that in the late war, 
being with his company in garrison at Kaskaskia, 
some Indians came there, and, speaking the Welsh 
language, were perfectly understood, and conversed 
with two Welshmen in his company, and that they 
informed them of their situation as mentioned 
above." Mr. Filson then continues : " That there 
are remains in Kentucky which prove that the 
country was formerly inhabited by a nation farther 
advanced in the arts of life than the Indians, and 
that these are usually attributed to the Welsh, who 
are supposed formerly to have inhabited these 
parts ; that a great number of regular intrench- 
ments are found there, and ancient fortifications 
with ditches and bastions, — one in particular con- 
taining about six acres of land, and others three 
acres ; that pieces of earthenware were plowed up, 
a manufacture the Indians were never acquainted 
with." 

About the time Mr. Filson's pamphlet appeared. 
Rev. Mr. Rankin, a resident of Kentucky, told 
William Owen, of London, that it was certain that 
a tribe or tribes of Welsh Indians then existed far 
westward, and that a vast uncultivated hunting- 
ground intervened, through which it was danger- 
ous to pass, because of the depredations of the 



ye 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



wild Indians, who destroyed everything that came 
in their way. He declared that there were unmis- 
takable evidences of their formerly having occu- 
pied the country about Kentucky, such as ivells 
dug which remained unfilled, the ruins of buildings^ 
mill-stones, iniplenients of iron, ornaments, etc. 

The statements of these early writers have been 
abundantly confirmed, respecting the existence of 
monumental remains and traces of civilized life, 
by the patient explorations of such workers as 
Schoolcraft, Squier, Davis, Pidgeon, and others, 
who have opened up many of these half- concealed 
monuments and disclosed their contents. Squier, 
in speaking of those found along the Ohio Valley, 
says, " The British Islands only afford works 
with which any comparison can safely be insti- 
tuted. The ' ring-forts' of the ancient Celts are 
nearly identical in form and structure with a large 
class of remains in our own country." The same 
author has given some deeply interesting accounts 
in his "Aboriginal Monuments" of his explorations 
of mounds, his finding human skeletons in rude 
frame-works of timber, instruments and ornaments 
of silver, copper, stone, and bone, sculptures of 
the human head, pottery of various kinds, and a 
large number of articles, some of which evince 
great skill in art. He says, *' In every instance 
falling within our observation, the skeleton has 
been so much decayed that any attempt to restore 
the skull, or indeed any portion of it, was hopeless. 



BY THE WELSH. 



77 



Considering that the earth around these skeletons 
is wonderfully compact and dry, and that the 
conditions for their preservation were exceedingly 
favorable, while in fact they are so much decayed, 
we may form some estimate of their remote an- 
tiquity. In the barrows and cromlechs of the 
ancient Britons, entire and well-preserved skele- 
tons are found, although having an undoubted 
antiquity of eighteen hundred years." There is, 
however, no safe rule by which to judge the an- 
tiquity of human skeletons by the surroundings. 
Some have been kept in a wonderful state of 
preservation under apparently the least favorable 
conditions, while others have crumbled to dust 
when it was thought they ought to have been 
preserved. 

It must be borne in mind that these mounds 
bear no resemblance to Indian burying-grounds. 
They are the sepulchres of a superior people. 

In 1844 a gentleman in Ohio sent to the librarian 
of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, 
Massachusetts, a cross, the emblem of the Chris- 
tian faith. It was made of silver, and was about 
two and a half inches long. It was found on the 
breast of a female skeleton which was dug from a 
mound at Columbus, over which a forest of trees 
had grown. On this cross the capital letters I. S. 
are perfectly visible. These initials are interpreted 
to mean the sacred name, lesus Salvator. 

A relic which obtained great celebrity some 



78 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



years ago, and which is now in the possession of 
some person in Richmond, Virginia, was found at 
Grave Creek, Virginia, near the Ohio, in the upper 
vault of the celebrated mound there. The atten- 
tion of the learned world was brought to it by 
Mr. Schoolcraft, who made a correct drawing and 
published it. The mound went by the suggest- 
ive name of ''The Grave!' It was pointed out to 
travellers on the Ohio, and was frequently visited. 
Dates were cut upon the trees surmounting it 
as early as 1734. The relic was found, with other 
things, by the side of some skeletons. It is nearly 
circular in form, and composed of a compact sand- 
stone of a light color. The inscription upon it 
runs in three parallel lines, and comprises twenty- 
four distinct characters, having at the bottom a 
hieroglyphic or ideographic sign. It has been 
subjected to the studious scrutiny of many learned 
men, with various results. The most of the char- 
acters have been decided to be Celtic or old British ; 
and therefore they afford some clue as to the origin 
of the relic itself The very fact of these characters 
being alphabetical indicates that the inscription was 
made by those of European origin. 

What, then, is the conclusion ? That it was in- 
scribed by those who understood the old British 
or Welsh language, who occupied the valley of 
the Ohio centuries ago, and who were the fol- 
lowers or descendants of Madoc. 

Some years ago, a circular plate, made of copper 



£y THE WELSH. 



79 



and overlaid with a thick plate of silver on one 
side, was found near the city of Marietta, Ohio. 
The copper was nearly reduced to an oxide, or 
rust. The silver was black, but could be bright- 
ened by being rubbed. A small piece of leather 
was inserted between the two plates of silver and 
copper, and both held together with a central rivet. 
This relic exactly resembled the bosses or orna- 
ments appended to the belt of the broadsword of 
the ancient Briton or Welshman. It lay on the 
face of the skeleton, preserving the bone, as it did 
the leather and the lint or flax around the rivet. 
Near the body was found a plate of silver, six inches 
long and two in breadth, and weighing one ounce. 
There were also several pieces of a copper tube, 
filled with rust. 

These are supposed to have belonged to the 
equipage of a sword; though nothing but iron 
rust could be found to answer for such a weapon. 
Near the feet of the skeleton was a copper plumb, 
of about three ounces' weight, and resembling an 
ordinary clock-weight. 

The construction of the earthen defences found 
in the valley of the Ohio and along the Mississippi 
evinces that those who erected them had great 
proficiency in engineering and military skill. They 
comprised all the parts of a systematic defence, — 
walls, ramparts, fosses, intrenchments, and even 
the lookout, corresponding to the barbican in the 
British system of the Middle Ages. So thiit it may 



8o AMERICA DISCOVERED 

be asked, in the language of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, a 
zealous antiquarian of Marietta, Ohio, " Of what 
age, or of what nation, was this race that once in- 
habited the territory drained by the Ohio? From 
what we see of their works, they must have been 
acquainted with some of the fine arts and sciences. 
They have left us perfect specimens of circles, 
squares, octagons, parallel lines, on a grand and 
noble scale ; and, unless it can be proved that they 
had intercourse with Asia or Europe, we must at- 
tribute to them the art of working metals." 

But the red race knew nothing of the art or 
science of smelting raw ores. Their copper in- 
struments were beaten into shape from the native 
metal, and these at best were very. rare and rude. 
The hundreds and thousands of relics in the vari- 
ous metals, many curiously finished, found in the 
valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, in mounds and 
caves, must, therefore, be the product of another 
people. Nor is it necessary to go back to dim or 
immemorial ages to account for their origin. 

The Welsh are the best miners and workers in 
metals in the world. The Phoenicians carried on a 
large trade in the metals with the inhabitants of 
the British Isles centuries before the Christian era, 
and their mines of iron, copper, tin, etc., have since 
enriched the British Empire. 

The mines of the Upper Lake regions were 
doubtless worked by the Welsh in the thirteenth, 
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, all the evidences 



BY THE WELSH. 8 1 

seeming to allow four or five hundred years since 
their opening. Old trees showing three hundred 
and ninety-five rings of annual growth have been 
found standing among the debris at the surface of 
some of these mines. Huge chunks of copper, in 
some cases weighing six tons, have been lifted out of 
their beds by finished tools and mining appliances. 
Wooden frame-works and skids have been found, 
which were, made with sharp-edged instruments, 
but upon being exposed to the air have turned to 
dust. It is thought that the area covered by the 
ancient works in the Lake Superior region is more 
extensive than that which includes the modern 
mines, but that the forests have overgrown and 
conceal from view the excavations. Of course a 
considerable period elapsed after the Welsh occu- 
pied the Ohio valley before they and those with 
whom they became incorporated penetrated so far 
northward to work these mines. Most of the relics 
which have been discovered in the mounds were, 
in all probability, made from the metals of that 
region. Colonel Whittlesey, who is an authority 
on this subject, thinks that the miners "■ went up 
from the settlements farther south in the summers, 
remained in the copper regions through the season, 
and worked the mines in organized companies until 
the advance of winter terminated their operations. 
As they were more advanced in civilization than 
the aborigines, they probably had better means of 
transportation than bark canoes." 

S 



82 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

In the enthusiasm of antiquarian research, many 
have been led to assign too great an age to the 
earthen defences and mounds of our country. 
The Cardiff Giant was pronounced, with scholarly 
awe, to be a fine specimen of an extinct race 
which trod this earth thousands of years before 
Adam drew breath, but was subsequently dis- 
covered to have been made from a chunk of 
gypsum taken from a quarry in Iowa. The 
remains of Fort Necessity, erected to cover the 
retreat of Braddock's defeated army, now wear 
such an antiquarian aspect that if there were no 
historical data respecting them they would be 
classed with the mounds. So with Forts Hamil- 
ton and Meigs, on the Miami and Maumee Rivers, 
and others, constructed only about one hundred 
years ago. When native forest trees are cleared 
away and the soil is turned over for the purpose 
of embankments, a new growth of vegetation is 
quickly started. 

Some years ago, a large oak was cut down in 
Lyons, New York, and on its being sawed there 
were found near the centre the marks of an axe. 
On counting the concentric circles, it was dis- 
covered that four hundred and sixty had been 
formed since the cutting was made. The block 
was brought to Newark and exhibited in a hotel 
there. All who saw it declared that the work had 
been done with an edged tool. 

The trees covering the mounds in Wyoming, as 



BY THE WELSH. 



83 



described by Chapman, had annular rings num- 
berin'g from six to seven hundred. President 
Harrison observed that it would take the trees, 
gpwing where a forest was cut down fifty years 
since, five htindred years to equal in height the 
surrounding woods; and that a forest of the 
largest trees at the mouth of the Great Miami, 
consisting of fifteen acres, covers the ruins left by 
former faces. 

It is worthy of notice, too, that the age of the 
trees found standing on these ancient fortifications 
and mounds, and the number of their annular 
circles, diminish with striking regularity in the 
ratio of their distance from the eastern coast. 
The first found reach as high a number as seven 
hundred; then, decreasing, they are found in Ohio 
with from four hundred to five hundred ; and then 
in the copper regions of Lake Superior with from 
three hundred and fifty to four hundred annular 
rings. Comparing these figures with the time 
(i 170) when Madoc and his followers landed on 
this continent, and allowing for their progress into 
the interior such reasonable periods as their pecu- 
liar circumstances demanded, adding also whatever 
other proofs have been adduced, scarcely a single 
doubt can linger in the mind of the candid inquirer 
as to the origin of these earthen defences and 
mounds, the removal of the native forests, the work- 
ing of the mines, and the many relics unearthed. 
• If it be objected that a small band of a {^\^ 



84 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



hundreds could not cover so much territory or ac- 
complish so much work, it may be said, in reply, 
that one century alone offers sufficient time for 
the achievement of wonders. Under favorable 
conditions peoples multiply rapidly. Surrounded 
as the Welsh were with populous tribes of red 
men, they affiliated with some of them for self- 
protection and aid, and degraded remnants of 
them are found at the present time in different 
parts of the far West. 



BY THE WELSH. 



85 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DISPERSION OF THE WELSH INDfANS. 

It was only after the most stubborn and san- 
guinary resistance that the Welsh Indians yielded 
the fertile plains of the Ohio valley to their enemies. 
They moved down the Ohio River to its conflu- 
ence with the Mississippi, and here for a period 
took another stand, as is evinced by the many 
remarkable remains and relics which have been 
brought to light by accident and the diligent 
researches of antiquarians and arch^ologists. 

At this point there began a series of dispersions, 
south, west, and north, by which they became 
spread over a vast area of the Western country. 
The Lower and Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, 
and many of the smaller rivers abound with re- 
mains which exhibit the same knowledge and skill 
with those along the Ohio. Such a dispersion 
offers the best solution for the construction of the 
numerous accounts given of them into an intelligi- 
ble and consistent whole. These accounts com- 
ing from so many different parties, separated from 
one another in time and distance, and independent 
of one another, excluding the possibility of pre- 

8->^ 



35 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

concert or collusion, it would not be wonderful if 
they appeared to vary in the minor details. Their 
differences are a proof of the absence of falsehood 
or trickery. That the Welsh did not lose all the 
radical characteristics of their race can be made 
evident: still, when it is considered how numerous 
the peoples were with whom they amalgamated, it 
will be seen that it did not require a great length 
of time for them to exhibit also traits of savage 
life. Such a result would follow from physical 
laws and the conditions of their wild state. 

This dispersion, and their being discovered in 
various sections of the country along and west of 
the Mississippi, will account for the different names 
by which they Avere called by intelligent travellers 
and captured whites, who had either heard of them 
or had been in their country and conversed with 
them. 

In 1792 a gentleman who had resided more than 
twenty years in New Orleans and on the banks of 
the Mississippi wrote a letter to Griffith Williams, 
London, being on a visit to the latter city himself 
at the time, from which the following extract is 
given : " That the natives of America have, for 
many years past, emigrated from the east to the 
west is a known fact. That the tribes mentioned 
by Mr. Jones, who spoke the Welsh tongue, may 
have done so is much within the order of proba- 
bility ; and that a people called the Welsh or 
White Indians now reside at or near the banks of 



BY THE WELSH. 



87 



the Missouri, I have not the least doubt of, having 
been so often assured of it by people who have 
traded in that river, and who could have no pos- 
sible inducement to relate such a story unless it 
had been founded in fact. 

" Since writing the above, a merchant from the 
Illinois country, and a person of reputation, is 
arrived in London. He assures me there is not 
the smallest doubt of a people existing on the 
west side of the Mississippi, called by the French 
the White Bearded Indians, none of the natives 
of America wearing beards; that these people 
are really white ; that they are said to consist of 
thirty-two villages or towns, are exceeding civ- 
ilized, and vastly attached to certain religious cere- 
monies; that a Mr. Ch., a merchant of reputation 
at the Illinois, has been to their country, which 
is, as he supposes, upwards of a thousand miles 
from the Illinois. 

*' Yours, etc., 

"J-J-" 

Mr. Williams, to whom the above was written, 
adds, " I have met the above gentleman several 
times, and he confirms the latter part of this nar- 
rative; that Mr. Ch. is a near relation of his; that 
Mr. Ch. was introduced to the chief of the Padoucas, 
by whom he was received with much solemnity, 
owing to his being of white complexion, from which 
circumstance, as far as Mr. Ch. could understand 



88 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

by being- amongst them, he was deemed an angel 
of God, his hands and his feet being washed by 
order of the chief, who appeared much advanced 
in years, his hair being long and perfectly white ; 
that the people chiefly subsist by the produce of 
the chase ; that the instruments they use on the 
occasion are generally bows and arrows ; that the 
farther he advanced from the frontiers, the dif- 
ferent tribes he passed through were the more 
civilized." 

Upon the occasion of the visit of General Bowles, 
a chief of the Cherokees, to London, on official busi- 
ness, in 1792, he was waited on by several eminent 
Welsh gentlemen to inquire if he knew anything 
of the Welsh Indians. He replied, "Yes, I know 
[ them, and they are called the Padoucas, or White 
Indians. This title is given them because of their 
complexions." When a map was laid before him 
on which that name was inscribed, he said that 
these were the people, and showed the limits of 
their country. He said that " generally they were 
called the White Padoucas, but those who live in 
the northern parts are called Black Padoucas,) 
because they are a mixture of the White Padou- 
cas and other Indians. The White Padoucas are 
as you are, having some of them sandy, some red, 
and some black hair. They are very numerous, and , 
one of the most warlike people on the continent." ' 

The gentlemen present then informed General 
Bowles of the times and circumstances of Madoc's 



BY THE WELSH. 



89 



voyages, when he replied, ''They must have been 
as early as that period, otherwise they could not 
have increased to be so numerous a people. I have 
travelled their southern boundaries from one side 
to the other, but have never entered their country. 
Another reason I have for thinking them to be 
Welsh is, that a Welshman was with me at home 
for some time, who had been a prisoner among the 
Spaniards and had worked in the mines of Mexico, 
and by some means he contrived to escape, got 
into the wilds, and made his way across the con- 
tinent, and eventually passed through the midst of 
the Padoucas, and at once found himself with a 
people with whom he could converse, and he stayed 
for some time. He told me that they had several . 
books, which were most religiously preserved in 
skins and were considered by them as. mysteries. 
These they believed gave an account from whence 
they came. They said they had not seen a white 
man like themselves, who was a stranger, for a 
long time." 

General Bowles was of Irish descent, and had 
many respectable relatives residing in London, 
whither he had come on a public mission in behalf 
of the Cherokees. 

Mr. Price, another chief, who was born among 
the Creeks, said that he understood not the Welsh 
tongue, but that his father, who was a Welshman, 
had frequent interviews and conversed with the 
Padoucas in his native language. He lived the 



QO AMERICA DISCOVERED 

greatest part of his life in the Creek country, and 
died there. 

In Cox's description of Louisiana, 1782, p. 6'}^, it 
is said " that Baron La Hontan, having traced the 
Missouri for eight hundred miles due west, found 
an east lake, along which resided two or three 
great nations, much more civilized than other 
Indians ; and that out of this lake a great river 
disembogues itself into the South Sea." 

The name by which he designates these people 
is Metocantes. 

Charlevoix, vol. ii. p. 225 of the English transla- 
tion, mentions "a great lake very far to the west of 
the Mississippi, on the banks of which are a peo- 
ble resembling the French, with buttons on their 
clothes, living in cities, and using horses in hunting 
buffaloes; that they are clothed with the skins of 
that animal, but without any arms but the bow 
and arrow." He calls them the Mactotatas. 

Bossu, in his account of Louisiana, vol. i. p. 182, 
says that he had been informed by the Indians of 
a nation of clothed people, far to the westward of 
the Mississippi, who inhabited great villages built 
with white stone, navigated in great piraguas on 
the great salt-water lakes, and were governed by 
one despotic chief, who sent great armies into the 
field. 

On page 393 he gives a particular account of 
Madoc's alleged voyages, and observes, *'The Eng- 
lish believe that this prince discovered Virginia. 



BY THE WELSH. oj 

Peter Martyr seems to give a proof of it when he 
says that the nations of Virginia and Guatemala 
celebrate the memory of one of their ancient- 
heroes, whom they call Madoc. Several modern 
travellers have found ancient British words used 
by the North American nations. The celebrated 
Bishop Nicholson believes that the Welsh lan- 
guage has formed a considerable part of the lan- 
guages of the American nations. There are anti- 
quarians who pretend that the Spaniards got their 
double or guttural / (//) from the Americans, who, 
according to the English, must have got it from 
the Welsh." 

Bossu adds that these Welsh Indians seem to 
go by various names, such as Panes, Panis (Paw- 
nees). 

During the war of the Revolution, Sir John 
.Caldwell, Bart., was stationed on the east side of 
the Mississippi. He lived in the country a long 
time, acquired a perfect knowledge of the language 
of the inhabitants, was adopted by them, and mar- 
ried a daughter of one of their chiefs. He was 
informed by them that the Panis (Pawnees) were a 
people considerably civilized, that they cultivated 
the ground, and built houses. Some Welshmen in 
his company understood their language, which 
they said was Welsh. Sir John said that he be- 
came acquainted with a Mr. Pond, a very sensible 
and intelligent Indian trader, who frequented the 
country of the Panis, which lies about the head of 



g2 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

the river Osages. He said that they were whiter 
and more civilized than any other Indian tribe. 

Mr. Rimington said that he had known for a 
long time that there were civilized Indians west of 
the Mississippi, who were called by those on the 
eastern side (the Chickasaws, etc.) Ka Anzou or 
Ka Anjou (Kansas), which in their language sig- 
nifies Jii'st of inen^ or fast men, and he was very 
strongly inclined to think that they were the 
Welsh Indians. 

Mr. Rimington, who was a native of England, 
had been a long time among the Indians. He said 
that being once with several Englishmen and one 
Jack Hughes, a Welshman, at the Forks of the 
Ohio, where was an Indian mart, some strange In- 
dians came there from the west of the Mississippi. 
A Shawanese Indian, who understood English, 
came to Mr. Rimington and desired him to be his 
interpreter. He went, but found that the language of 
these strangers was not intelligible to him. When 
he returned, and told his companions that he knew 
not their language, one of them exclaimed, '' Oh, 
they are the Welsh Indians !" Jack Hughes was 
sent, who understood them well ; and he was their 
interpreter while they continued there. He said 
that these Indians are tolerably white in com- 
plexion, and their dress like that of the Europeans, 
— a kind of trousers, coats with sleeves, and hats 
or caps made of small and very beautiful feathers 
curiously wrought. Furthermore he said that these 



BY THE WELSH. 



93 



white Indians are to be met with at the Indian 
marts on the Mississippi, at the Natches, Forks 
of the Ohio, Kaskaskies, etc., for all the Indian 
tribes on this continent, even from the shores of 
the South Sea, resort thither. 

Thus it may be seen that the Welsh Indians 
went by different names, the most of them bearing 
a similitude to what they called themselves, and 
by which they were known to the Indians and 
the whites : as Padoucas by Mr. Binon, General 
Bowles, Mr. Ch., Mr. Price and his father; Panis 
(Pawnees) by Sir John Caldwell, Mr. Pond, and 
others ; Ka Anzou (Kansas) by the Chickasaws, 
and Mr. Rimington; Matocantes by Coxe; Macto- 
tatas by Charlevoix ; and Madaw^wys, Madogian 
or Madogiaint by many others. 

Padoucas would more nearly approach the gen- 
eral name in sound if the letter ;// were substituted 
for /, thus changing the word into Madoucas, the 
former being regarded as a corruption which might 
arise from the difficulty some tribes have expe- 
rienced in pronouncing certain letters. 

In the common maps of the country a century 
ago, an extensive nation called the White Padoucas 
were placed about eighty-eight degrees north lati- 
tude, and one hundred and two degrees west lon- 
gitude of London ; but they extended in detached 
communities from about thirty-seven degrees north 
latitude and ninety-seven degrees west longitude 
to forty-three degrees north latitude and one hun- 

9 



94 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



dred and ten degrees west longitude. The city 
of Paducah, Kentucky, doubtless derived its name 
from this nation, which once occupied the region in 
which it is situated. The Padoucas, Pawnees, and 
Kansas were intermixed with one another, and suf- 
fered a fearful decimation by wars and diseases, so 
that the tribal name of the first is now extinct ; but 
a few straggling bands still survive under the second 
and third names. In 1874 the Pawnees numbered 
about two thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, 
and the Kansas or Kaws less than that number. 
From the document accompanying President Jef- 
ferson's message to Congress in 1806, it may be 
discovered that the Pania Pique in Arkansas were 
formerly known by the name of the White Panias, 
and are of the same family as the Panias of the 
river Platte. According to that communication, 
the Padoucas, a once powerful nation, had appar- 
ently disappeared. In 1724 they resided in vil- 
lages at the head of the Kansas River. Oppressed 
by the Missourians, they removed to the upper 
part of the river Platte, where they had but little 
intercourse with the whites. The northern branch 
of that river is still called the Padoucas Fork. It 
is conjectured that, being still more oppressed, 
they divided into small wandering bands, which 
assumed the names of the subdivisions of the 
Padoucas nation which have since been known 
under the appellation of Wetepahatoes, Kiawas, 
Kanenavish, Katteka, and Dotamie, who still in- 



BV THE WELSH. 



95 



habit the country to which the Padoucas are said 
to have removed. 

In the map attached to Du Pratz's Louisiana 
the " White Panis" are placed at the head of the 
Arkansas ; Panis Mahas, or White Panis, at the 
head of the south branch of the Missouri ; and 
between those rivers is marked the country of the 
Padoucas. 

During the last two centuries the Indian races 
have waned so rapidly, their places of habitation 
have been so often changed, and so many of the 
tribes have become amalgamated, that names are 
not an unerring guide by which to determine 
their early history, or to what stock many of the 
remnants still surviving belong. 

As to the names given by the French travellers 
cited elsewhere, — Matocantes, etc., — there is some 
resemblance to the name of Madoc. A Welsh- 
woman in South Wales calling her son by that 
name would say Matoc, which is pure Silurian 
Welsh, the d being changed into /.* hence there 
might follow such names as Matociait, Matociaint, 
Matocantes, as applied to the followers of Madoc. 
These changes are not arbitrary, but inhere in the 
laws and euphony of human language. 



96 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER IX. 

MAURICE Griffith's and his companions' expe- 
rience. 

The following letter, published in the " Ken- 
tucky Palladium" in 1804, by Judge Toulmin, of 
Mississippi, will be read with keen interest by 
those who have any desire to study everything 
relating to this subject: 

** Sir, — No circumstance relating to the history 
of the Western country probably has excited, at 
different times, more general attention and anx- 
ious curiosity than the opinion that a nation of 
white men speaking the Welsh language reside 
high up the Missouri. By some the idea is treated 
as nothing but the suggestion of bold imposture 
and easy credulity; whilst others regard it as a 
fact fully authenticated by Indian testimony, and 
the report of various travellers worthy of credit. 

" Could the fact be well established, it would 
afford perhaps the most satisfactory solution of 
the difficulty occasioned by a view of the various 
ancient fortifications with which the Ohio country 



BY THE WELSH. gj 

abounds, of any that has been offered. Those 
fortifications were evidently never made by the 
Indians. The Indian art of war presents nothing 
of the kind. The probability, too, is that the per- 
sons who constructed them were, at tJiat time, 
acquainted with the use of iron. The situation of 
these fortifications, which are uniformly in the 
most fertile land of the country, indicates that 
those who made them were an agricultural peo- 
ple ; and the remarkable care and skill with which 
they were executed afford traits of the genius of 
a people who relied more on their military skill 
than on their numbers. The growth of the trees 
upon them is very compatible with the idea that 
it is not more than three hundred years ago that 
they were abandoned. 

"These hints, however, are thrown out rather to 
excite inquiry than by way of advancing any de- 
cided opinion on the subject. Having never met 
with any of the persons who had seen these white 
Americans, nor even received their testimony near 
the source, I have always entertained considerable 
doubts about the fact. 

"Last evening, however, Mr. John Childs, of Jes- 
samine County, a gentleman with whom I have 
been long acquainted, and who is well known to 
be a man of veracity, communicated a relation to 
me which at all events appears to merit serious 
attention. After he had related it in conversation, 
I requested him to repeat it, and committed it to 
9^ 



98 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



writing. It has certainly some internal marks of 
authenticity. The country described was alto- 
gether unknown in Virginia when the relation 
was given, and probably very little known to the 
Shawanese Indians. Yet the account of it agrees 
very remarkably with later discoveries. On the 
other hand, the story of the large animal, though 
by no means incredible, has something of the air 
of fable, and it does not satisfactorily appear how 
the long period which the party were absent was 
spent, — though the Indians are, however, so much 
accustomed to loiter away their time that many 
weeks, and even months, may probably have been 
spent in indolent repose. Without detaining you 
any more with preliminary remarks, I will pro- 
ceed to the narration as I received it from Mr. 
Childs. 

" Maurice Griffiths, a native of Wales, which 
country he left when he was about sixteen years of 
age, was taken prisoner by a party of Shawanese 
Indians, about forty years ago, near Vosses Fort, 
on the head of the Roanoke River, in Virginia, and 
carried to the Shawanese Nation. Having stayed 
there about two years and a half, he found that 
five young men of the tribe had a desire of at- 
tempting to explore the sources of the Missouri. 
He prevailed upon them to admit him as one of 
their party. They set out with six good rifles and 
with six pounds of powder apiece, of which they 
were, of course, very careful. 



BY THE WELSH. on 

**0n reaching the mouth of the Missouri, they 
were struck with the extraordinary appearance 
occasioned by the intermixture of the muddy 
waters of the Missouri and the clear, transparent 
element of the Mississippi. They stayed there 
two or three days, amusing themselves with the 
view of this novel sight; they then determined on 
the course which they should pursue, which hap- 
pened to be so nearly in the course of the river 
that they frequently came within sight of it as 
they proceeded on their journey. After travelling 
about thirty days through pretty farming wood- 
land, they came into fine open prairies, on which 
nothing grew but long luxuriant grass. Here was 
a succession of these, varying in size, some being 
eight or ten miles across, but one of them was so 
long that it occupied three days to travel through 
it. In passing through this large prairie, they 
were much distressed for water and provisions, 
for they saw neither beast nor bird ; and, though 
there was an abundance of salt springs, fresh water 
was very scarce. In one of these prairies the salt 
springs ran into small ponds, in which, as the 
weather was hot, the water had sunk and left the 
edges of the pond so covered with salt that they 
fully supplied themselves with that article, and 
might easily have collected bushels of it. 

"As they were travelling through the prairies, 
they had likewise the good fortune to kill an ani- 
mal which was nine or ten feet high and a bulk 



lOO AMERICA DISCOVERED 

proportioned to its height. They had seen two 
of the same species before, and they saw four of 
them afterwards. They were swift-footed, and had 
neither tusks nor horns. After passing through 
the long prairie, they made it a rule never to 
enter on one which they could not see across, till 
they had supplied themselves with a sufficiency of 
jerked venison to last several days. After having 
travelled a considerable time through the prairies, 
they came to very extensive lead-mines, where 
they melted the ore and furnished themselves 
with what lead they wanted. They afterwards 
came to two copper-mines, one of which was three 
miles through, and in several places they met with 
rocks of copper ore as large as houses. 

"When about fifteen days' journey from the 
second copper-mine, they came in sight of white 
mountains, which, though it was in the heat of 
summer, appeared to them to be covered with 
snow. The sight naturally excited considerable 
astonishment ; but, on their approaching the 
mountains, they discovered that, instead of snow, 
they were covered with immense bodies of white 
sand. 

"They had in the mean time passed through 
about ten nations of Indians, from whom they re- 
ceived very friendly treatment. It was the prac- 
tice of the party to exercise the office of spokes- 
man in rotation ; and when the language of any 
nation through which they passed was unknown 



BY THE WELSH. lOi 

to them, it was the duty of the spokesman, a duty 
in which the others never interfered, to convey 
their meaning by appropriate signs. 

** The labor of travelHng through the deep sands 
was excessive ; but at length they relieved them- 
selves of this difficulty by following the course of 
a shallow river, the bottom of which being level, 
they made their way to the top of the mountains 
with tolerable convenience. After passing the 
mountains they entered a fine fertile tract of land, 
which having travelled through for several days, 
they accidentally met with tJiree zuhite men in the 
Indian dress. Griffith immediately understood 
their language, as it was pure Welsh, though they- 
occasionally made use of a few words with which 
he was not acquainted. However, as it happened 
to be the turn of one of his Shawanese compan- 
ions to act as spokesman or interpreter, he pre- 
served a profound silence, and never gave them 
any intimation that he understood the language of 
their new companions. 

" After proceeding with them four or five days' 
journey, they came to the village of these white 
men, where they found that the wJiole nation zua's 
of the same color, having all the European com- 
plexion. The three men took them through their 
villages for about the space of fifteen miles, when 
they came to the council-house, at which an as- 
sembly of the king and chief men of the nation 
was immediately held. The council lasted three 



102 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

days, and, as the strangers were not supposed to 
be acquainted with their language, they were 
suffered to be present at their dehberations. 

" The great question before the council was, 
what conduct should be observed towards the 
strangers. From their fire-arms, their knives, and 
their tomahawks, it was concluded that they were 
a warlike people. It was conceived that they were 
sent to look out for a country for their nation ; 
that if they were suffered to return, they might 
expect a body of powerful invaders ; but that if 
these six men were put to death, nothing would 
be known of their country, and they would still 
enjoy their possessions in security. It was finally 
determined that they should be put to death. 

" Griffith then thought it was time for him to 
speak. He addressed the coiuieil iii the JVe/sh lan- 
guage. He informed them that they had not been 
sent by any nation ; that they were actuated merely 
by private curiosity, and had no hostile intentions; 
that it was their wish to trace the Missouri to its 
source ; and that they should return to their 
country satisfied with the discoveries they had 
made, without any wish to disturb the repose of 
their new acquaintances. 

"An instant astonishment glowed in the coun- 
tenances, not only of the council, but of his Shaw- 
anese companions, who clearly saw that he was 
understood by the people of the country. Full 
confidence was at once given to his declarations. 



BY THE WELSH. 



03 



The kinc^ advanced and gave him his hand. They 
abandoned the desip^n of putting him and his com- 
panions to death, and from that moment treated 
him with the ittmost friendship. Griffith and the 
Shawanese continued eight months in the nation, 
but were deterred from prosecuting their researches 
up the Missouri by the advice of the people of the 
country, Avho informed them that they had gone a 
twelvemonth's journey up the river, but found it as 
large there as it was in tlieir own country. 

"As to the history of this people he could learn 
nothing satisfactory. The only account they could 
give was, that their forefathers had come up the 
river from a very distant country. They had no 
books, no records, no writings. They intermixed 
with no other people by marriage : there was not 
a dark-skinned man in the nation. Their numbers 
were very considerable. There was a continued 
range of settlements on the river for fifty miles, 
and there were within this space three large water- 
courses which fell into the Missouri, on the banks 
of each of which they were likewise settled. He 
supposed that there must be fifty thousand men in 
the nation capable of bearing arms. Their clothing, 
was skins well dressed. Their houses were made 
of upright posts and barks of trees. The only im-' 
plemcnts they had to cut them with were stone 
tomahawks ; they had no iron. Their arms were 
bows and arrows. They had some silver which 
luud been hammered with stones into coarse orna- 



104 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

merits, but it did not appear to be pure. They 
had neither horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, nor any 
domestic or tame animals. They lived by hunt- 
ing. He said nothing about their religion. 

" Griffith and his companions had some large iron 
tomahawks with them. With these they cut down 
a tree and prepared a canoe to return home in ; 
but their tomahawks were so great a curiosity, and 
the people of the country were so eager to handle 
them, that their canoe was completed with very 
little labor to them. When this work was accom- 
plished, they proposed to leave their new friends, 
Griffith, however, having promised to visit them 
again. 

" They descended the river with considerable 
speed, but amidst frequent dangers fr-om the 
rapidity of the current, particulai'ly when passing 
thr-ough the white mountains. When they reached 
the Shawanese Nation, they had been absent about 
two year's and a half Griffith supposed that when 
they tr-avelled they went at the rate of about fifteen 
miles per day. He stayed but a few months with 
the Indians after his return, as a favorable oppor- 
tunity offered itself to him to reach his friends in 
Virginia. He came with a hunting-party of In- 
dians to the head-waters of Coal River*, which 
runs into New River not far above the falls. Here 
he left the Shawanese, and easily reached the set- 
tlements on the Roanoke. 

" Mr. Childs knew him befor-e he was taken pris- 



BY THE WELSH. 



105 



oner, and saw him a few days after his return, when 
he narrated to him the preceding circumstances. 
Griffith was universally regarded as a steady, honest 
man, and a man of strict veracity. Mr. Childs has 
always placed the utmost confidence in his account 
of himself and his travels, and has no more doubt 
of the truth of his relations than if he had seen the 
whole himself Whether Griffith be still alive or 
not he does not know. Whether his ideas be 
correct or not, we shall probably have a better 
opportunity of judging on the return of Captains 
Lewis and Clarke, who, though they may not pen- 
etrate as far as Griffith alleged he had done, will 
probably learn enough of the country to enable us 
to determine whether the account given by Griffith 
be fiction or truth. 

" I am, sir, 

" Your humble servant, 

" Harry Toulmin. 

"Frankfort, December 12, 1S04." 

With regard to the exploring expeditions of 
Lewis and Clarke, to which Judge Toulmin refers, it 
was found in their published records that although 
they pursued a different branch of the Missouri 
from the one which was supposed to lead to the 
Welsh Indians, they discovered straggling Indians 
similar to those mentioned by Griffith, Vancouver, 
and many others. They belonged to those who 
had a tribal existence in other localities. 

However, they describe long lines of embank- 
10 



I06 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

ments which they saw before leaving the main 
channel of the Missouri, some of them enclosing 
an area of six hundred acres. They found them 
as high up as one thousand miles from the junc- 
tion with the Mississippi. Captain Lewis was a 
Welshman. In their long and perilous journey, 
extending to the Columbia River, they lost but 
one man, William Floyd, also a Welshman, and 
who was buried on top of one of these mounds 
west of the Missouri,— called to this day " Floyd's 
Moiindr 

The Missouri, taken in connection with the Mis- 
sissippi, is the longest river in the world, its length 
from the highest navigable stream to the Gulf of 
Mexico being four thousand four hundred and 
ninety-one miles, and its length to its junction 
with the Mississippi, three thousand and ninety- 
six miles. Add to this the immense distance not 
naviorable because of the cataracts and falls, next 
to Niagara the grandest on this globe, and reach- 
ing to the Rocky Mountains, and some idea may 
be formed of the great extent of this river. The 
entrance of the Yellow-Stone is nearly two thou- 
sand miles above its mouth. A journey of one 
thousand miles up the Missouri a century or more 
since, while it was an undertaking of no slight 
magnitude and attended with many hardships and 
dangers, did not bring the traveller over more than 
one-fourth of its length. The course pursued by 
Griffith and his companions can be marked out 



BY THE WELSH. 



107 



with singular accuracy by the use of subsequent 
knowledge, obtained during the last one hundred 
years, respecting the country that river traverses. 

He speaks of finding lead- mines. The lead- 
mines of Missouri are extremely valuable, and 
yield millions of pounds annually. 

He speaks of salt springs. The line of his jour- 
ney conducted him by the salt licks of Nebraska, 
which, when the springs are low and evaporation 
is rapid, have the appearance of layers of snow. 

He speaks of white mountains. Passing from 
the broad open prairies to the uplands and moun- 
tains, the soil is sandy and in many places remark- 
ably white. The writer himself has often seen on 
the Missouri bold projections of limestone which 
in the distance appeared like banks of snow. 

He speaks of the Indians being all white. This 
presents a difficulty not easily reconcilable with 
the intermixture theory. The predominating color, 
it would be supposed, was that of the red race. 
But he partially explains this by saying that ''they 
intermixed with no other people by marriage: 
there was not a dark-skinned man in the nation." 
Could they without intermixture have increased 
to such considerable numbers as to be able, as 
he supposes, to put into the field " fifty thousand 
men capable of bearing arms" ? It need not be 
thought impossible, but it certainly is improbable. 
At any rate, this people were sufficiently white to 
be called, by Griffith and by a large number of 



I08 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

reliable witnesses, "White Padoucas," ''White 
Panis," "White Indians." 

He speaks of their having no records and no 
horses. In this respect his recital differs somewhat 
\ from those given by others, some of whom assert 
that they saw some old manuscript books, and 
that they had horses for the chase. His statement, 
however, offers no contradiction to that made by 
others, because it is pretty certain that many of 
them came upon different branches of the same 
extensive nation. 

He speaks of their speaking " pure Welsh," but 
qualifies it by saying that they occasionally made 
\ use of a few words with which he Avas not ac- 
quainted. He meant no more than that the radi- 
cal structure of the language was still preserved 
and could be readily distinguished, though some 
of the words had undergone modification. This 
is the case with all languages, not even excepting 
the Welsh in Wales, which has shown itself superior 
to all others to resist any great change. 

It is somewhat surprising that Griffith did not 
give some account of the religious institutions of 
this people ; for if they were the descendants of 
Madoc some traces of the Christian religion might 
have been discovered. Or had they been all effaced 
in six hundred years? 

It must be admitted that what he does relate 
bears every internal mark of simple, honest truth. 



BY THE WELSH. iqq 



CHAPTER X. 

CAPTAIN ISAAC STUART — GOVERNORS SEVIER AND 

DINWIDDIE GENERAL MORGAN LEWIS THEIR 

KNOWLEDGE OF THE WELSH INDIANS. 

Captain Stuart was an officer in the Provincial 
Cavalry of South Carolina, and the following sketch 
was taken from his own lips by I. C, Esq., an in- 
telligent gentleman, in March, 1782. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Conger, of South Carolina, regarded Cap- 
tain Stuart as a man who could be implicitly trusted 
in what he said. 

*' I was taken prisoner about fifty miles to the 
westward of Fort Pitt, about eighteen years ago, 
by the Indians, and was carried by them to the 
Wabash, with many more white met), who were 
executed with circumstances of horrid barbarity. 
It was my good fortune to call forth the sympathy 
of what is called the good woman of the town, 
who was permitted to redeem me from the flames 
by giving as my ransom a horse. 

"After remaining two years in bondage among 

the Indians, a Spaniard came to the nation, having 

been sent from Mexico on discoveries. He made 

application to the chief for redeeming me and an- 

10* 



no 



AMERICA DISCO VERED 



other white man, who was in like situation, named 
John Davey (David), which they compHed with. 

"And we took our departure, in company with 
the Spaniard, to the westward, crossing the Missis- 
sippi near Rouge, or Red, River, up which we trav- 
elled seven hundred miles, when we came to a nation 
remarkably white, and whose hair was of a reddish 
color, or mostly so. They lived on the banks of 
a small river which is called the river Post. In 
the morning of the day after our arrival, the Welsh- 
man informed me that he was determined to remain 
with them, giving as a reason that he understood 
their language, it being very little different from 
the Welsh. My curiosity was excited very much 
by this information, and I went with my companion 
to the chief men of the town, who informed him, 
in a language I had no knowledge of, and which 
had no affinity to that of other Indian tongues that 
I ever heard, that their forefathers of this nation 
came from a foreign country and landed on the 
east side of the Mississippi, describing the country 
particularly now called Florida, and that on the 
Spaniards taking possession of Mexico they fled 
to their then abode. 

"And, as a proof of the truth of what he advanced, 
he brought forth a roll of parcJnncnt, which was 
carefully tied up in otters' skins, on which were 
large characters written with blue ink. The char- 
acters I did not understand; and, the Welshman 
being unacquainted with letters, even of his own 



BY THE WELSH. II i 

language, I was not able to know the meaning of 
the writing. They are a bold, hardy, and Intrepid 
people, very warlike, and the women beautiful when 
compared with other Indians." 

John Sevier, at one time Governor of Tennessee, 
in a letter dated October 9, 18 10, and published by 
Major Stoddard in his " Sketches, Historical and 
Descriptive, of Louisiana," Philadelphia, 18 12, p. 
483, says that in 1782 he was on a campaign against 
the Cherokees. Observing on his route traces of 
very ancient fortifications, he afterwards took occa- 
sion, on exchange of prisoners, to inquire into their 
origin, of Oconostoto, who for sixty years had been 
a ruling chief of the Cherokee Nation, and particu- 
larly as to the origin of the remarkable fortifications 
on the branch of the Highwasse River. The ven- 
erable chief replied, that it was handed down by 
their forefathers that those works were made by 
wJiite people who had formerly inhabited the coun- 
try. When the Cherokees lived in the country 
now South Carolina, wars existed between them, 
and were only ended when the whites consented to 
abandon the country. Accordingly, they ascended 
the Tennessee to the Ohio, then to the big river 
Mississippi, then up the muddy Missouri to a very 
great distance. They are now on some of its 
branches, but are no longer white people; they 
have become Indians, and look somewhat like the 
other red people of the country. " I then asked 
him," continues Governor Sevier, '* if he had ever 



112 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



heard any of his ancestors say to what nation of 
people the whites belonged. He answered, * I heard 
my grandfather and other old people say that they 
were a people called Welsh ; that they had crossed 
the great waters and landed near the mouth of the 
Alabama River, and were finally driven to the heads 
of its waters, and even to the Highwasse River, by 
the Mexican Spaniards.' 

'* Oconostoto also said that an old woman in 
his nation had some parts of an old book given 
her by an Indian living high up the Missouri, and 
thought he was one of the Welsh tribe. Unfortu- 
nately," observes Governor Sevier, " before I had 
an opportunity of seeing the book, her house and 
^all its contents were destroyed by fire. I have con- 
versed with several persons who saw and examined 
it; but it was so worn and disfigured that nothing 
intelligible remained." 

Governor Sevier was informed by a Frenchman, 
a great explorer of the country west of the Missis- 
sippi, that he had been high up the Missouri, and 
traded several months with the Welsh tribes, who 
spoke much of the Welsh dialect. Although their 
customs were savage and wild, yet many of them, 
particularly the females, were fair and white. They 
often told him that they had sprung from a white 
people ; and that they had yet some small scraps 
N of books remaining, but in such a tattered and 
mutilated order that they were unintelligible. 

The very year that Robert Dinvviddie, Governor 



BY THE WELSH. 



113 



of Virginia, sent a letter of remonstrance to M. de 
St. Pierre, the French commander, complaining 
of the hostile movements of The Ohio Company, 
George Washington, then a young man of twenty- 
two, being chosen bearer of the dispatches, the 
Governor received a letter from a gentleman named 
George Chrochan, showing that the French knew 
of the Welsh Indians. This was in 1753. The 
original letter was deposited in the Foreign Office 
in London, and several gentlemen were enabled 
to obtain copies of it through Maurice Morgan, 
Esq., secretary to Sir Guy Carleton. It is as fol- 
lows: 

" Last year I understood, by Colonel Lomax, 
that your Honor would be glad to have some in- 
formation of a nation of people settled to the west, 
on a large river that runs to the Pacific Ocean, 
coinmotily called the Welsh Indians. 

" As I had an opportunity of gathering some 
accounts of those people, I make bold, at the in- 
stance of Colonel Cressup, to send you the follow- 
ing accounts. As I formerly had an opportunity 
of being acquainted with several French traders, 
and particularly with one who was bred up from 
his infancy amongst the Western Indians on the 
west side of Lake Erie, he informed me that the 
first intelligence the French had of them was by 
some Indians settled at the back of New Spain, 
who, in their way home, happened to lose them- 
selves, and fell down on this settlement of people, 



114 AMERICA DISCOVERED • 

which they took to be French by their talking very 
quick ; so, on their return to Canada, they informed 
the Governor that there was a large settlement of 
French on a river that ran to the sun's setting ; 
that they were not Indians, although they lived 
within themselves as Indians; for they could not 
perceive that they traded with any people, or had 
any trade to sea, for they had no boats or ships 
as they could see; and, though they had guns 
amongst them, yet they were so old and so much 
out of order that they made no use of them, but 
hunted with their bows and arrows for the support 
of their families. 

"On this account the Governor of Canada deter- 
mined to send a party to discover whether they 
were French or not, and had three hundred men 
raised for that purpose. 

" But, when they were ready to go, the Indians 
would not go with them, but told the Governor if 
he sent but a few men they would go and show 
them the country; on which the Governor sent 
three young priests, who dressed themselves in 
Indian dresses and went with those Indians to the 
place where these people were settled, and found 
them to be Welsh. 

"They brought some old Welsh Bibles, to satisfy 
the Governor that they were there ; and they told 
him that these people had a great aversion to the 
French; for they found by them that they had 
been at first settled at the mouth of the Missis- 



BY THE WELSH. . jj^ 

sippi, but had been almost cut off by the French 
there : so that a small remnant of them escaped 
back to where they were then settled, but had 
since become a numerous people. The Governor 
of Canada, on this account, determined to raise an 
army of French Indians to go and cut them off; 
but, as the French have been embarrassed in war 
with several other nations nearer home, I believe 
they have laid that project aside. The man who 
furnished me with this account told me that the 
messengers who went to make this discovery were 
gone sixteen months before they returned to Can- 
ada: so that these people must live at a great 
distance from thence due west. This is the most 
particular account I ever could get from those 
people as yet. 

" I am yours, etc., 

" George Chrochan. 

"Winchester, August 24, 1753." 

Governor Dinwiddie became so positively as- 
sured of their existence that he agreed with a 
party of black traders to go in quest of the Welsh 
Indians, and promised to give them for that pur- 
pose the sum of five hundred pounds ; but he was 
recalled before they could set out on the expe- 
dition. 

General Morgan Lewis was an officer in the 
American Revolutionary army. He was the son 
of Francis Lewis, one of the signers of the Decla- 



Il5 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

ration of Independence. The general was a well- 
known citizen of New York. He was aide-de- 
camp to General Gates at the battle of Saratoga, 
and, on the surrender of the English army at that 
place, was requested by him to receive the sword 
of General Burgoyne. In TurnbuU's picture, com- 
memorative of the event, found in the rotunda of 
the Capitol at Washington, the figure of General 
Lewis occupies a prominent position. He was 
distinguished for many honorable military and 
civil services. He was the successor of George 
Clinton as Governor of the State. In 1838 he be- 
came president of the Society of Cincinnati, an 
institution founded by Washington, who was its 
first president. His portrait hangs in the Gov- 
ernor's room of the New York City Hall. He 
died on the 7th of May, 1844, in his ninetieth year, 
beloved and respected by all. He used frequently 
to relate many stirring incidents which occurred 
during the life of his father. The latter, while on 
a military expedition in the French War, was cap- 
tured at Oswego, and was assigned over, with 
thirty others, by Montcalm, the acting French 
commander, to certain Indians, as their share of 
prisoners. Among the Indians was a chief whose 
language resembled the Gaelic (a dialect of the 
Celtic with which Mr. Lewis, who was a native of 
Wales, was thoroughly acquainted). On hearing 
him converse, Mr. Lewis understood him suffi- 
ciently to discover that his language was of that 



I 



BY THE WELSH, 



117 



ancient dialect, although modified by usage and 
lapse of time. He then addressed the chief in 
Welsh, and was understood. The chief selected 
Mr. Lewis from the rest of the prisoners, and 
accompanied and guarded him personally. Sub- 
sequently Mr. Lewis was sent to England in a 
cartel for exchange of prisoners, and after his 
return frequently mentioned to his family and 
others the circumstances. His name and memory 
are linked with the immortal band of signers. 
He was a merchant of New York city, owned 
property on Long Island which was destroyed by 
the English, and died in 1803, aged ninety years, 
the father and the son having attained the same 
age. 

Here are several strong testimonies from four 
entirely independent sources, each separate from 
the others, with no motives of prejudice or self- 
interest to mislead wilfully, and the parties too 
intelligent to be betrayed into a blind credulity. 
The disclosures of this chapter, if they stood 
alone, would be sufficient to carry conviction to 
every candid inquirer, that there was a remarkable^ 
people, different from the common red races of 
this continent, inhabiting a portion of the Western 
country during the last century. And to such an/ 
extent did this conviction prevail that it was madd 
the basis of official action by Governor DinwiddieJ 
whose plans were frustrated by his recall, and th^ 
Governor of Canada, who sent out an expeditioii. 



Il8 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

which returned in safety and reported the exist- 
ence of Welsli Indians. 

Mr. Binon, Captain Stuart, Governor Sevier, the 
members of the Canadian expedition, and others, 
state that these people had manuscript books in 
parchment, but that they could not be read or 
understood even by those Welshmen who were 
with some of these parties. Some of these manu- 
scripts contained the mysteries of religion, and 
were carefully preserved. 

Even to this day there are classes of the popu- 
lation of Wales who cannot read and write ; a 
century ago their condition was far worse, before 
the establishment of parish schools; but, granting 
that all were learned in the rudiments of education, 
there is not probably one in a thousand who could 
read a manuscript of the twelfth century. Most 
of them stagger those who claim to have scholarly 
attainments. If they were in the Greek instead 
of the Roman character, as some of them have 
been discovered to be, the mystery would be still 
greater. The Greek alphabetical character was 
used in the British Island prior to the invasion 
by Julius Caesar, after which the Roman charac- 
ter was adopted and became generally used in 
common life and writing. 

Yet so sacred was the Greek character held by 
monastic schools, because the gospel was written 
in it, that many transcribers — and they were the 
book-makers — clung with a religious enthusiasm 



BV rilE WELSH. IIQ 

to it. Christianity was certainly introduced into 
the Island in the second century, the Greek forms 
in the Welsh language had not become lost, and 
it is likely that many parchment manuscripts were 
extant. Madoc's position as a member of the 
royal house of Wales, notwithstanding the scarcity 
and great cost of books in those times, would 
enable him to possess some of the most valuable, 
even those illuminated in rich, fixed colors, and ' 
which required many years of patient toil to 
manufacture. It is far more within the order of 
reason to believe that Madoc and his emigrants, 
upon leaving their own native shores, would take 
with them copies of the great book of books, 
— the king of books on the throne of letters, — 
than that they would leave them behind. Some , 
of his followers, perhaps the most of them, were 
not able to read them then, but knew some- 
what their contents. Under their new conditions 
of life, relapsing gradually from a civilized state, 
these manuscripts came at length to be invested 
with a certain sacred mystery, as the depository 
of their ancestors' religious faith. No wonder 
that they should be so carefully preserved. 



I20 AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER XL 

THE MANDAN INDIANS I WHO ARE THEY? 

During the present century various travellers 
have called the attention of the civilized world to 
a small body of Indians inhabiting the banks of 
the Upper Missouri, called Mandans. They, with 
the Minatarees and Crows, are classed with the 
Dacotahs or Sioux, although it is known that their 
language bears no affinity whatever with the latter 
people. The Mandans are very light-colored. 

George Catlin, the well-known student of Indian 
life, character, language, and manners, was, with- 
out any doubt, more intimately acquainted with 
this people than any others who preceded him or 
have followed him. 

Mr. Catlin was born in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, 
and was for some years a practising lawyer. He 
removed to Philadelphia, and, upon meeting with 
a delegation of Indians, resolved to employ his 
talents as a painter in the best school, by painting 
man in the simplicity of his nature. Accordingly, 
he made arrangements to spend the most of his 
time among the Indian tribes of the Western 
country. His enthusiasm in his work arose to 



BY THE WELSH. 121 

the height of an intense passion. He studied 
every phase of Indian life, nothing seeming to have 
escaped his attention. Withal, he was an ardent 
admirer of the Indian character; and he says, " No 
Indian ever struck me, betrayed me, or stole from 
me a shilling's worth of my property, that I am 
aware of" In another place he says, with a touch- 
ing pathos, "They are fast travelling to the shades 
of their fathers, towards the setting sun." In his 
*' Notes on the American Indians" he has por- 
trayed a complete picture of the Mandans, giving 
the minutest details, so that the reader can study 
them as well from his two volumes as if he were 
daily living among them, — indeed, better than if 
he wished to visit them at present, they have been 
of late years so much reduced by the ravages of 
that fearful scourge, smallpox. After Mr. Catlin 
visited them, this disease was introduced by one 
of the steamers of the Fur Company, which had 
two cases aboard. 

One reason assigned why so many perished 
was, that the Mandan villages were surrounded 
by the hostile Sioux. Many destroyed themselves 
with knives and guns, while others dashed their 
brains out against rocks, by leaping from the 
ledges. When the disease was at its greatest 
height, there was one incessant crying to the 
Great Spirit. The bodies lay in loathsome piles 
in their wigwams, and there remained to decay or 
be devoured by dogs. Some became crazed, and 



J 22 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

plunged into the coldest water when the fever was 
raging, and died before they could get out. 

Mat-to-toh-pa, " Four Bears," great chief of the 

Mandans, watched his tribe, wives, and children 

die about him, then starved himself, dying on the 

ninth day, his body prostrate over the remains of 

his kinsmen. Their numbers are now so reduced 

that the last statistics give them four hundred only. 

When Mr. Catlin made his first entrance into 

this nation, numbering several thousands, he was 

struck with their appearance, and at once concluded 

that they belonged to an amalgam of native and 

white. He was at a loss for some time how to 

account for this; and it was only after the most 

careful study that he reached the conviction that 

the Mandans were a branch of the descendants of 

Madoc's colony. He believed that the ten ships 

of Madoc, or at least a part of them, either entered 

the Balize at the mouth of the Mississippi, or the 

^colonists landed on the Florida coast and made 

their way inward. They began agriculture, but 

were attacked and driven to erect those immense 

earthen fortifications, and subsequently were driven 

still farther and farther inward. Mandans was a 

corruption of Madawgwys, a name applied by 

Cambrians to the followers of Madoc. 

The following brief summary, arranged by the 
writer of these pages, may be taken as Mr. Catlin's 
principal reasons why he thought the Mandans 
were Welsh : 



BY THE WELSH. 



123 



(i.) Their physical appearance. o /^ 

They were of medium height^ and stout. They 
did not share that high, stalwart physical frame 
which is so usual with Indians of the forest be- 
fore they have become degraded by the vices of 
civilization. 

Their complexions were very light-colored, but 
not uniform in shade. 

Their hair was of all colors found in civilized 
societies. The hair of the unmixed Indian is a 
straight black. They wore beards, — which Indians 
do not have. They must have been the people 
who were called the Bearded Indians. They had 
different-colored eyes, — hazel, gray, and blue. 

(2.) Form of Mandan villages. Here it may be , 
remarked that the Minatarees construct their vil- 
lages upon the same plan. They sink holes in 
the ground to the depth of two feet and having 
a diameter of forty feet, of a circular form, for the 
foundation of their wigwams, which are built of 
substantial materials and display more skill than 
is found among the other Indians. 

(3.) Mandan remains. The method of sinking 
down into the earth for the purpose of obtaining 
a foundation has, singularly enough, offered a clue 
as to the authors of all those remains along the 
Ohio, at the confluence of the Mississippi and 
Ohio, and along up the Missouri to the present 
abode of the Mandans. Their earthen works and 
huts, built in Druidic circles, are exact counter- 



124 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

parts of those along the paths of their migrations. 
Of course the larger works have no modern coun- 
terparts, for those were erected when they were 
more numerous and able to cope with their foes. 

The villages of the dead are uniformly built in 
circles. 

(4.) Their social and domestic customs. 

They exhibit great skill in the manufacture of 
pottery, and the specimens found in the earthen 
remains of the Ohio Valley, many of them at 
present in the museum at Cincinnati, correspond 
with many of the products of the Mandans. The 
Mandan women mould vases, cups, pitchers, and 
pots out of the black clay, and bake them in little 
kilns in the sides of the hill, or under the bank of 
the river. They possess secrets of manufacturing 
known only to themselves. They have the ex- 
traordinary art of making a very beautiful and last- 
ing kind of blue glass beads, which they wear on 
their necks in great abundance. This must be the 
nation, or at least a portion of it, which Captains 
Lewis and Clarke saw, and whom they declared to 
be light-colored, and whose manufacture of beads 
and glass articles they described thirty years be- 
fore Mr. Catlin. 

Their canoes are the exact shape of the Welsh 
coracle, made of raw hides, — skins of buffaloes, 
— stretched underneath a frame made of willows 
or other boughs, and shaped nearly round like a 
tub, which the women carry on their heads. The 



BY THE WELSH. 



125 



Welsh coracle, a boat which has been used by 
fishermen from time immemorial, is made in the 
same way by covering a wicker frame with leather 
or oil-cloth, and is carried on the head or with 
straps from the shoulders. 

In their social and domestic habits generally 
they are different from other Indians. 

(5.) Their religious belief and ceremonies. 

There is something reaching the marvellous 
connected with their religion. Their traditional 
belief one would imagine was nothing less than a 
corrupted epitome of the Christian belief 

{a) The account of the transgression of mother 
Eve, involving the doctrine of the temptation, is 
quite explicit. The Evil Spirit, who was a black 
fellow, came and sat down by a woman and told 
her to take a piece out of his side, which she did, 
and ate it, which proving to be buffalo fat, she 
became enceinte. 

(b) The traditions of the Deluge are far more 
rational, and could more easily be believed, than 
many which have been entertained by other na- 
tions. 

[c.) The most important religious ceremony 
among the Mandans is a representation of the 
death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It takes place 
annually, as soon as the willow is in full leaf; for, 
they say, **the twig which the bird brought in was 
a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves upon 
it." The spectacle presented in the crucifixion of 



126 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

the Saviour by the young men of the Mandan 
nation might not accord with our civiHzed tastes 
and notions of propriety, yet it is wonderfully im- 
pressive, and calculated to turn the spectator's 
thoughts to the tragedy of Calvary. The finest- 
looking young man is selected as the central 
figure, and others surround him, when they are 
stuck full of skewers, and suspended on beams 
around their rude temple where they worship. 

(6.) The Mandan language. 

In their own language they call themselves 
See-pohs-ka-mi-mah-ka-kee (the people of the 
pheasants), which Mr. Catlin thinks they would 
not do if they had not lived where pheasants 
abounded, as in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, 
for there are none on the prairies until within six 
or seven hundred miles of the Rocky Mountains. 

The most convincing proof, probably, to the 
mind of Mr. Catlin, and to all others who have 
studied the possible identification of the Mandans 
with Madoc's colony, is found in their language. 
The resemblance in form and sound is so very 
marked that it cannot escape the eye and ear of 
any individual, much less those of a Welshman. 
It is expected that he would catch the soonest any 
similarity in the two languages, — the Mandan and 
the Welsh. And fortunately there are too many 
instances of this similarity to admit for a moment 
the idea of chance or coincidence. 

That the reader may see that this is the case, 



BY THE WELSH. 



127 



his attention is called to the subjoined table of 
words selected from the English, Mandan, and 
Welsh, and their pronunciations : 



English. 


Mandan. 


Welsh. 


Pronounced, 


I 


Me 


Mi 


Me. 


You 


Ne 


Chwi 


Chwe. 


He 


E 


A 


A. 


She 


Ea 


E 


A. 


It 


Ount 


Hwynt 


Hooynt. 


We 


Eonah 


Huna, tnasc. 


Hoona. 






Hona, fein. 


Hona. 


Those ones 








Yrhai Hyna. 


No, or there 


Megosh 


Nagoes 


Nagosh. 


is not 




f Nage 




No 


Meg 


JNag 
I Na 




Head 


Pan 


Pen 


Pen. 


The Great 


Maho peneta 


Mawr penae- 


Maoor penae- 


Spirit 




thir 


thir. 






Ysprid mawr 


Usprid maoor 


Father 


Tautah 


Tadwys 


Tadoos. 


Foh! Ugh! 


Paeechah 


Pah 


Pah. 


Hammock 


Caupan 


Gaban 


Gaban. 


To call 


Eenah 


Enwi 


Enwah. 



Many other words might be given, but the 
above is sufficient to show the remarkable simi- 
larity of form, and that where they do not agree as 
to certain letters the resemblance is preserved in 
the pronunciation. Every language has its own 
individuality in respect to that. The Welsh is 
noted for its deep gutturals, and, to the ear unac- 
customed to hear it, it seems very harsh. Trav- 



128 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

ellers have observed this guttural pronunciation 
very extensively among the American Indians. 
Lossing says that the language of the Uchees, the 
remnant of a once powerful nation who were 
seated in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and far- 
ther west, was exceedingly harsh, and unlike that 
of any other nation. Mr. Baldwin, in his recent 
work on "Ancient America," in his endeavors to 
determine the origin of the Natches Indians, says, 
" they differed in language, customs, and condition 
from all other Indians in the country." He then 
attempts to affix their traditions with the people 
of Mexico. It may be remembered that elsewhere 
it is stated that it was right in the midst of the 
territory occupied by the Natches that Mr. Willin, 
a rich Quaker, had among his settlers a number of 
Welshmen, who conversed in their native tongue 
with the Indians. Also, that Mr. Burnell and his 
son, Cradog, were part of a company who pur- 
chased forty milHons of acres from the Natches 
and Yazous, and that both father and son, particu- 
larly the latter, understanding the Welsh language, 
could converse with the Indians. Is it not alto- 
gether likely, then, that the Uchees and Natches, 
being known to be so very different from the sur- 
rounding nations in language, spoke the same as 
the Mandans, and that the language of the three 
did not differ much from the Welsh ? 

Dr. Morse, in the report of his tour (printed in 
New Haven in 1822) among the Western Indians, 



BY THE WELSH. 1 29 

performed In the behalf of the Government, In 
1820, mentions, upon the Information furnished 
by Father Relchard, of Detroit, a report that pre- 
vailed at Fort Chartres, among the old people, in 
1 78 1, that Mandan Indians had visited that post 
and could converse intelligibly with some Welsh 
soldiers then in the British army. Dr. Morse 
suggested the Information as a hint to any person 
who might have an opportunity of ascertaining 
whether there was any affinity between the two 
languages. By a guidance more than human, Mr. 
Catlln was led Into the midst of that people, and 
he has shown that such an affinity does exist, and 
has performed a service of permanent value by his 
contributions to the literature of a question which 
was thought to be a bold imposture foisted upon 
a credulous age by an equally credulous but more 
ignorant rabble. But time Is making things more 
equal, and the sturdy defenders of Madoc's voy- 
ages and American colony are having his claims 
ratified in a most astonishing manner. It is very 
fortunate that more recent researches have brought 
to light the language of a people so rapidly melting 
away, and thus supplied an answer to the question 
as to how the many Welshmen who came In con- 
tact with them could understand and converse with 
these Welsh Bearded Indians. 



1^0 AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER XII. 

WELSH BLOOD IN THE AZTECS. 

Mexico and Peru were the most civilized parts 
of the continent when the Spaniards arrived. If 
it had not been for the bigoted zeal of the Spanish 
priests, and most signally that of Zumarraga, the 
abundant and astonishing national picture-writings 
which were the historical records of the Aztecs 
might still be in existence, and serve to reveal 
the successive links in the mighty chain of migra- 
tions of the early peoples, so that much of the 
mystery that still lingers in regard to their settle- 
ment and civilization could be removed. But these 
priests looked upon those writings as the memo- 
rials of pagan idolatry, and, having collected them 
together, committed them to the flames, thus ex- 
tinguishing in a day, as it were, the history of a 
once powerful empire. The historian is conse- 
quently forced to rely upon whatever fugitive pieces 
escaped the hands of those infamous ravagers, the 
study of the monumental remains, and the broken 
and scattered remnants of this people, scarcely 
recognizable, found on the Mexican plateau ajid 
in the various parts of the American territories. 



BV THE WELSH. 



131 



According to the most authentic records which 
remain, the Aztecs came from the regions of the 
North, "the populous hive of nations in the New 
World, as it has been in the Old." 

Clavigero, the patient and voluminous historian 
of New Spain, assigns the following dates to some 
of the most important events in the early history 
of Mexico: 



The Toltecs arrived in Anahuac . 
They abandoned their country . 
The Chichemecs arrived 
The Acolhuans arrived about 

The Aztecs or Mexicans reached Tula 
They founded the Mexican Empire 

Conquest by Cortez . ' . 



A.D. 

648 
105 I 
I 170 
1200 

I 196 
1325 
I52I 



Zurita, a celebrated jurist, whose personal experi- 
ence and observation among the Aztecs extended 
over a period of nineteen years, and who returned 
to Spain in 1560, was indignant at the epithet bar- 
barian as applied to the Aztecs, — an epithet, he 
says, "which could come from no one who had per- 
sonal knowledge of the capacity of the people or 
their institutions, and which in some respects is 
quite as well merited by the European nations." 

Their high degree of civilization, their remark- 
able advance in the knowledge and practice of the 
arts and sciences, so wondrously displayed in their 



132 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



architecture, their causeways, their temples, their 
homes and their adornments, their agriculture and 
systems of irrigation, their floating gardens and 
beautiful feather-work, their strange religion and 
military displays, must have produced an impres- 
sion upon the Spaniards which they never forgot 
The vast wealth of the Aztecs so excited the spirit 
of avarice in them, however, that, for a time, each 
one planned how best to enrich himself 

In complexion they were much lighter than the 
common American Indians. Their style of dress, 
which was often the most elaborate, and made from 
the finest materials of their own weaving, more 
\ nearly approached that of Europeans, — trousers, 
jacket, surtout, cloak, and cap or hat ornamented 
with fine feather-work. The same dress is worn by 
their descendants in Mexico at the present time. 
Their treatment of their women was not Asiatic, 
but resembled more that which is accorded to- 
them by the civilized nations of the world. Their 
duties were domestic, and they were not degraded 
by servile bondage. Throughout the different 
- cities were barber-shops, where the men assem- 
bled to have their beards shaved. No such thing 
was known among the American Indians. 

** Quetzalcoatl, god of the air," says Prescott, 
*' instructed them in the use of the metals, in agri- 
culture, and the arts of government. It was the 
golden age. For some cause he was compelled to 
abandon the country. On his way he stopped at 



BY THE WELSH. 



133 



the city ofCholula, where a temple was dedicated 
to his worship, tlie massy ruins of which still form 
one of the most interesting relics of antiquity in 
Mexico. When he reached the shores of the 
Mexican Gulf, he took leave of Ids folloivers^ prom- 
ising that he and his descendants zvonld revisit them 
hereafter, and then, entering his wizard skiff made 
of serpents' skins, embarked on the great ocean for 
the fabled land of Tlapallan [are there not here the 
Welsh words lla, place, softened into tla, and pell, ^ 
distant, meaning " distant place" ?] He was said to 
have been tall in stature, zvith a zuhite skin, long dark 
hair, and a flozving beard. The Mexicans looked 
confidently to the return of this benevolent deity; 
and this remarkable tradition, deeply cherished in 
their hearts, prepared the way for the success of 
the Spaniards." 

Their religion was a compound of Christianity 
and mythology, of spiritual refinement and fe- 
rocity. Indeed, so much was this the case that 
the most intelligent and judicious historians of the 
Aztecs could not resist the conviction that one part 
of their religion emanated from a comparatively 
refined people, while the other sprang from bar- 
barians. Everything pointed to the doctrine that 
their religion had tzvo distinct sources. 

Some historians have erred in supposing that 
they indiscriminately sacrificed human beings. 
Their sacrifices were criminals collected from all 
parts of the country, kept in cages, and slain upon 



134 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

the same day to make a religious exhibition. This 
ought to be stated, so that, if possible, there might 
be some mitigation of their dark and bloody prac- 
tices. 

They recognized the existence of one God, Su- 
preme Creator and Lord of the Universe. In their 
prayers they addressed Him as their God, *' by 
whom they lived, omnipresent, who knoweth all 
thoughts and giveth all gifts, without whom man 
is as nothing, the incorporeal, invisible, one God, of 
perfect perfection and purity, under whose wings 
we find repose and a sure defence." 

They made confession but once, and that usually 
was deferred to a late period of life. The follow- 
ing was the language of the confessor for the 
penitent: "O merciful Lord, thou knowest the 
secrets of all hearts, let thy forgiveness and favor 
descend like the pure waters of heaven, to wash 
away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that 
this poor man has sinned, not from his own free 
will, but from the influence of the sign under which 
he was born." He then teaches charity : " Clothe 
the naked and feed the hungry, whatever privations 
it may cost thee; for, remember, their flesh is like 
thine, and they are men like thee." 

The ceremony of naming children shows a won- 
derful coincidence with what are called Christian 
rites. The lips and bosom of the infant were sprin- 
kled with water, and "the Lord was implored to 
permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that 



BY THE WELSFL 



35 



was given to it before the foundation of the world, 
so that the child might be born anew." 

Their prayers, too, inculcated Christian morality : 
"Wilt thou blot us out, O Lord, forever? Is this 
punishment intended not for our reformation, but 
for our destruction? Impart to us out of thy great 
mercy thy gifts, which we are not worthy to receive 
through our own merits." 

" Keep peace with all." " Bear injuries with 
humility. God who sees will avenge you." "He 
who looks curiously on a woman commits adul- 
tery with his eyes." What parallels with Scripture 
teachings ! 

The Aztec nobles had bards in their houses, who 
composed ballads suited to the times, and sang and 
played on instruments in honor of the achievements 
of their lord. In this is discovered a resemblance 
to the customs of Welsh minstrelsy. 

They had also musical councils, held on special 
days in the presence of large public assemblies, for 
the trials of historians, poets, and musicians, in 
their respective compositions, before the monarchs 
of Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. These were 
exactly identical with the Welsh Eisteddfods, — 
bardic and musical contests, which have long been 
and are still held in Wales, and in other countries 
where the descendants of the people of that coun- 
try reside. They had also a complete system of 
orders and badges resembling those in Europe. 
By a study of their stone calendars, they are known 



136 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



to have had regular divisions of time; and their 
years consisted of three hundred and sixty-five 
days. Historians relate that in the first interview 
of Cortez with Montezuma in his palace, the latter 
said that his ancestors were not the original pro- 
prietors of the land. They had occupied it but a 
few ages, and had been led there by a great Being, 
wJio^ after giving them lazvs and rulijig over the 
nation for a time, had zvit/uirawn to the trgion zvhere 
the sun rises. He had declared upon his departure 
that he or his descendants would again visit them 
and resume his empire. The wonderful deeds of 
the Spaniards, their fair complexion, and the quar- 
ter whence they came, led him to believe that they 
were his descendants. 

It was this tradition, inflexibly maintained by 
all the natives, which enabled Cortez and his 
followers to secure such a complete conquest 
throughout the Aztec empire; and yet so cruel 
a monster was he that he put to death the two 
emperors, Montezuma and Guatemozin, and nearly 
four millions of their subjects, in the most cruel 
manner. At least, this is stated by historians ; 
possibly the number is exaggerated. At any rate, 
he slew an immense number. 

A gentleman who was in Mexico saw in 1748, 
in a Spanish manuscript there, the speech which 
Montezuma delivered to his subjects just prior to 
his death, and which is probably still in existence : 

"Kinsmen, Friends, Countrymen, and Subjects: 



BY THE WELSH. 



137 



You know I have been eighteen years your sov- 
ereign and your natural king, as my illustrious 
predecessors and fathers were before me, and all 
the descendants of my race since we came from a 
far distaiit nortliej-n iiation, zvliose tongue and man- 
ners we yet have partly preserved. I have been to 
you a father, a guardian, and a loving prince, while 
you have been to me faithful subjects and obedient 
servants. 

** Let it be held in your remembrance that you 
have a claim to a noble descent, because you are 
sprung from a race of freemen and heroes, who 
scorned to deprive the native Mexicans of their 
ancient liberties, but added to their national free- 
dom principles which do honor to human nature. 
Our divines have instructed you of our natural 
descent from a people the most renowned upon 
earth for liberty and valor ; because of all nations 
they were, as our first parents told us, the only 
unsubdued people upon the earth by that warlike 
nation [Romans] whose tyranny and ambition 
assumed the conquest of the world ; but neverthe- 
less our great forefathers checked their ambition, 
and fixed limits to their conquests, although but 
the inhabitants of a small island^ and but few in 
number, compared to the ravagers of the earth, 
who attempted in vain to conquer our great, glo- 
rious, and free forefathers," etc. 

In the above, Montezuma and his people looked 
upon themselves as the descendants of freemen 



138 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



and heroes who had not been subdued, who were 
the inhabitants of a small island in the north. 
The description very strikingly answers to the 
character, manners, and principles of the Welsh, 
and the place as the British Island. When Cortez 
came to their country, Montezuma was the eleventh 
emperor of Mexico in the Aztec line. Now, al- 
lowing an average reign to each emperor of twenty 
years, it will be found that Prince Madoc's arrival 
in this country will about coincide with the time 
of the establishment of this empire. This is also 
true with regard to the Peruvian empire. Ata- 
hualpa, who was treacherously and inhumanly 
put to death by the cruel and avaricious Pizarro, 
was the twelfth emperor of Peru in succession 
from Manco Capac. By the same method of 
calculation it will be seen that the dynasty of the 
Incas was established about the time of Madoc's 
arrival. In consequence of this, with many other 
proofs which cannot be introduced here, it has 
been maintained that he also was the founder 
of the Peruvian empire and civilization. John 
Williams, an author of no small repute, in his 
"Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom," vol. 
ii. p. 410, maintains that not only Mexico but 
Peru also was discovered by Madoc ; that the few 
fair and white persons found there by the Span- 
iards were the descendants of Madoc's colony; 
and that Manco Capac and Mamma Ocello were 
Madoc and his wife. They are supposed to be the 



BY THE WELSH. 



39 



progenitors of the Peruvian Incas. As they were 
so different from the original natives in their com- 
plexions, they were thought to be the children of 
the sun; a sentiment which Manco might encour- 
age for his own preservation. Mamma Ocello he 
thinks a corruption of Mamma Ichel, or Uchel, 
the Welsh for " high or stately mother," He 
gives it as his opinion that Madoc in his first 
voyage landed in the Gulf of Mexico, and that 
when he went back to his native country he 
promised those whom he left behind to return to 
them ; but that in his second voyage he was 
driven by a storm from the north down as low as 
Brazil, and was shipwrecked near the mouth of 
the Amazon River; that he and his wife and the 
survivors sailed up that river ; that after some time 
he arrived at Cuzco, the capital of the Peruvian 
empire; and that he never came to his first colony. 
He then assigns many reasons for his belief It 
cannot be denied that some of those reasons are 
ingenious. The fact of Madoc or some of his 
followers having reached Peru is not denied ; but 
they reached that country from the western^ not 
the eastern^ side of the continent. They went 
down the sea-coast west of Mexico to make ex- 
plorations, or were carried against their choice 
by a storm to Peru, where they settled. Such a 
theory is in harmony with the foregoing pages, 
while it does not in any way conflict with the 
founding of that empire by Madoc. 



1^0 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

Three South American nations ascribe their 
civilization and rehglon to three white men who 
appeared among them. 

Abbe Molina, in his " History of Chili," vol. ii. 
book i. chap, i., says that ** there is a tribe of 
Indians in Baroa, Chili, whose complexions are a 
clear white and red." 

Baron Humboldt, In his ** Political Essays," 
remarks that " in the forests of Guiana, especially 
near the sources of the river Oronoco, are several 
tribes of a whitish complexion." 

Captain John Drummond, who resided in 
Mexico for many years in a military capacity, as 
an engineer, geographer, and naturalist, favored 
Dr. Williams, the author of the " Enquiry," with 
his opinion on the subject. He said that he "was 
fully persuaded and convinced that Madoc was 
one of the confederate chiefs who went upon an 
expedition westward from Britain about the year 
1 1 70; and that he has heard of colonies of Welsh 
people now existing, who, he thinks, are descend- 
ants of Madoc's people ; that the emigrants were 
a mixture of Welsh, North Britons, and Irish, 
and that Madoc was naval commander." 

This was not at all unlikely, since upon Madoc's 
return from his first voyage he made his discov- 
eries as public as possible. The North Britons 
and Irish were on friendly terms with the Welsh, 
and all were hostile to the English. Jeuan 
Brecva, a Bard who flourished about the year 



BY THE WELSH. 



141 



1480, says that Rhiryd, an illegitimate son of 
Owen Gwynedd, and who, according to Powell, 
was Lord of Clochran, in Ireland, " accompanied 
Madoc across the Atlantic (Morwerydd) to some 
lands they had found there, and there dwelt." 
There can be no doubt, therefore, that some Irish 
went with Madoc to America. 

It is probable, too, that some Scots were in the 
expedition; for Captain Drummond said that at 
one time he was accompanied by his servant, who 
was a Highlander, on a journey through the 
country, when they came to a Mexican hut where 
they heard a woman singing to her child. His 
servant began to show signs of astonishment, and 
turned to the captain and told him that the woman 
was using words from the Erse, — the language of 
the Highlands in Scotland. 

The captain further observed, that Don Juan 
de Grijalva, a Spaniard, said that "he found the 
Celts of Mexico, some having little or no arms, 
but clothed in hides ; and that the fierceness of 
their manners and their undaunted courasfe re- 
sembled the old Britons, as described by Henry 
II. to the Emperor Emmanuel Commenes. He 
also found others with short-skirted vests of dif- 
ferent colors, with targets and short black spears, 
and that these new men in Mexico were adored 
by the natives for their courage and dexterity, for 
that they never had seen ships till they came 
among them from afar." 



1^2 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

Antonio Goluasco, a Portuguese author of great 
celebrity, mentions the expedition of a Captain Ma- 
chan, a British adventurer, in 1344, who had been 
in Mexico, and had got store of wealth and silver 
from the native sovereign of that day, but who 
was cast away on his return to Europe, with all 
his treasure, near Madeira. 

Also, from the negotiations of Sir John Haw- 
kins, an English admiral, in the latter part of 
Queen Elizabeth's reign, and from the speeches 
of various Mexican chiefs to Sir John's officers 
who were sent from Vera Cruz to Mexico to 
negotiate with the Spanish Viceroy, is deduced 
strong proof that these chiefs looked upon them- 
selves as descended from the Welsh. 

The Tlascalans belonged to the same great fam- 
ily with the Aztecs. They came on the grand 
Mexican plateau about the same time with the 
kindred races, at the close of the tivelftJi century. 
Their immense fortifications and walls, which ex- 
tended for many miles, show the same methods of 
construction, in semicircular lines and overlapping 
one another, as those in the valleys of the Ohio 
and Mississippi. 

Most of the historians say that the two great 
pyramids — teocalli — ^just northeast of the city of 
Mexico were constructed by an ancient people 
that came to Mexico from some country east 
situated on the Atlantic Ocean. 

What. then, is the conclusion? That the Aztecs 



■BY THE WELSH. 



143 



were the Alligewi, who were found in Virginia 
and the Carolinas by Madoc's colony, and with 
whom the latter became amalgamated and moved 
westward. Being more and more pressed by the 
powerful Indian nations which subsequently gained 
control of the middle and eastern countries, they 
were at length obliged to abandon the Ohio and 
Mississippi valleys. Some portions of these people 
had reached, as a sort of advance-guard, the Mex- 
ican plateau before those who were left behind 
entirely surrendered the country. The date of 
founding the Aztec empire — 1325 — necessitates 
this view, and Clavigero, whose table of dates has 
been given in another part of this chapter, places ^ 
the first arrival of the Aztecs in Tula as early as • 
1 196, — twenty-six years after the arrival of Madoc. 

When this mighty migration took place, a por- 
tion, from necessity, convenience, or inclination, 
ascended the Missouri; and of these the Mandans 
are the descendants ; while the main body moved 
in a southwest direction, leaving unmistakable . 
traces of their progress from the Mississippi to 
Mexico. Some of these will be noticed in a sub- 
sequent chapter. 

The Aztec empire became a controlling power 
on this continent, and exacted tribute for the 
Mexican kings from all the Indian -tribes. But 
the Welsh element was no more in point of num- , 
bers, though they were in power, to the Aztecs 
than the Tartars were to the Chinese. The ships 



144 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

which are represented on Mexican monuments as 
crossing an ocean are Madoc's vessels, floating on 
the Atlantic from Wales to America. 

Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, the most pro- 
found investigator in Mexican and Peruvian an- 
tiquities, says, " The native traditions generally 
attribute their civilization to bearded white men, 
who came across the ocean from the east." 



BY THE WELSH. 



145 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE MOQUIS, MOHAVES, AND MODOCS. 

Sebastian Cabot, in 1495, some two or three 
years after the first voyage of Columbus, dis- 
covered Florida and Mexico, and found along the 
coast the descendants of the Welsh discoverers 
who eventually settled in Mexico. 

Sir George Mackenzie, in a letter to his grand- 
father, the fourth Earl of Perth, writing on the 
subject of Celtic discoveries in Europe and Amer- 
ica, cites Baronius, Scaliger, Salmasius, Lipsius, 
and others as authorities for believing in these 
early emigrations. As early as the sixteenth cen- 
tury are found explicit accounts of strange peo- 
ples inhabiting certain portions of America and 
possessing different characteristics from the abo- 
rigines. Hakluyt, in his third volume, has an 
extract from Antonio de Epejo, written in 1583: 
** The Spaniards along the Rio del Norte, latitude 
37° upwards, found the Indians far more civilized, 
and having a better form of government, than any 
others in Mexico. They had a great number of 
large and very populous towns, well built of 
stone and lime, three or four stories high ; their 
13* 



146 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



country is very large and extensive. The chief 
town, called Cia, has not less than eight markets. 
The inhabitants are very warlike, have great plenty 
of cows and sheep, dress neat's leather very fine, 
and make of it shoes and boots, which no other 
Americans do. They have also deer-skins and 
chamois equal to those of Flanders (probably 
brought to Flanders from' Switzerland), and 
abound with excellent provision in the greatest 
profusion. They have large fields of corn, and 
make curious things of feathers of various colors. 
They manufacture cotton, of which they make 
fine mantles, striped with blue and white. They 
have many salt lakes in their country, that abound 
with excellent fish, and from the waters of which 
they make excellent white salt. The country 
abounds with wild beasts, wild fowl, and all sorts 
of game. They breed great numbers of hens. 
The climate is very fine, the soil rich, producing 
great quantities of delicious fruits. They have 
amongst them grapes the same as those of Cas- 
tile, and fine roses like those of Europe. They 
have also abundance of excellent metals, gold and 
silver. The people are very industrious and labo- 
rious, and the cultivation of the ground occupies 
all their time. Their houses are flat-roofed. The 
country is very mountainous, and has excellent 
timber ; and the inhabitants seem to have some 
knowledge of the Christian faith. They have 
many chapels, and erect crosses, and they live in 



BY THE WELSH. 



147 



general in great security and peace. The largest 
lake is in the western part of the country, and 
around it is a great number of large, well-built, and 
populous towns. The people are neatly dressed, 
in clothes made of exceeding well-dressed skins 
and cotton cloth." 

Captain Carver, in his "Travels in North Amer- 
ica," says that "northwest of the Missouri and 
St. Pierre, the Indians farther told me that there 
was a nation rather smaller and whiter than the 
neighboring tribes, who cultivate the ground, and 
(as far as I could gather from their expressions) 
in some measure the arts. They are supposed to 
be some of the different tribes that were tributary 
to the Mexican kings, and who fled from their 
native country to seek an asylum in these parts 
about the time of the conquest of Mexico by the 
Spaniards, about two centuries ago." 

Farther on (page 386), he says, "The Jesuits and 
French missionaries also pretended that the In- 
dians had, when they first travelled into America, 
some notions — though these were dark and con- 
fused — of the Christian institutions, for they were 
greatly agitated at the sight of the cross, which 
made such impressions on them that showed that 
they were not unacquainted with the sacred mys- 
teries of Christianity." 

Very little has been known until late years 
of the Rio del Norte and its source or sources, 
which flows in a southerly direction through New 



148 



AMERICA DISCO VERED 



Mexico and empties into the Gulf. But as the 
population has increased in this country with aston- 
ishing rapidity, and settlements have been opened 
in the Territories, and there was a necessity for a 
well-organized Indian Bureau to provide for the 
scattered tribes living in the Southwest, the con- 
dition and character of the country and of the 
people in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona 
are being brought to light. Military and scientific 
expeditions have been sent into those countries, 
which have returned with reports of having dis- 
covered new nations about whom nothing has 
been hitherto known. 

In the campaign of General Crook against the 
Apaches, a large tract of country, rich with the 
relics of the past, was opened. It contains a chain 
of cities in ruins and ancient towns still inhabited 
by a race which holds itself aloof from Mexicans, 
Indians, and Americans, and prides itself on its 
descent from the ancient inhabitants of the country, 
and maintains a religion and government peculiar 
to itself. The largest settlement was found in 
Mexico, about thirty miles south of the border 
line. A strong wall surrounds it. Within are 
houses for about four thousand people. The 
population had dwindled at the time they were 
discovered to about eighteen hundred. Monte- 
zuma is their deity, and his coming is looked for 
at sunrise each day. Their priests wear heavily- 
embroidered robes, while their religious ceremonies 



BY THE WELSH. 1 49 

are very formal and pompous. They have a high 
order of morality. The chief powers of govern- 
ment are vested in thirteen caciques, six of whom 
are elected for life. They are quite advanced in 
civilization. Their women are not treated as beasts 
of burden, but are respected, and permitted to con- 
fine themselves to housekeeping. From all that 
can be gleaned, it appears that these people have 
maintained their traditions unbroken for at least 
three centuries and a half 

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Baca published, in 1529, 
a description of his wanderings in America. He 
was in New Mexico, and, in writing of the Indian 
villages, said, "The New Mexico pueblos — villages 
— are generally two stories high, with doors on 
the roof and the staircase ladders on the outside." 
Within a circle of sixty miles from Santa Fe there 
are to be found the ruins of over forty deserted 
towns ; and in various other portions of New 
Mexico and Arizona similar ruins are in exist- 
ence, all showing that there once resided here a 
powerful people essentially differing from the com- 
mon American Indians. They were not placed 
here by the Spaniards, but had occupied these 
towns and cities long before their coming. By 
some it is believed that Montezuma originated in 
New Mexico; and some even designate his birth- 
place. Some locate it at the old pueblo of Pecos; 
while others maintain that it was near Ojo Cali- 
ente, the ruins of which are still to be seen. A 



I50 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



document is now extant purporting to be copied 
from one of the legends at the capital in Mexico, 
in which it is stated that Montezuma was born in 
Teguayo, one of the ancient pueblos of New 
Mexico. This was not his original name, but was 
applied to him upon his elevation to the Aztec 
throne, as it was to his predecessors. It is sup- 
posed by some that in this region was situated the 
Aztlan, whence came the Aztecs to Mexico ; by 
others that it was along the Gila River, in Arizona. 
But throughout that entire country the ancient 
towns which are now inhabited and the deserted 
ruins show a common origin. 

The view has been entertained by some who 
have given this subject attention that it was at 
this point in the progress of the migrations that 
Madoc and his followers finally became amalga- 
mated with the Aztecs. 

Within the past few years, several visits have 
been made by the members of Wheeler's Sur- 
veying Expedition — Samuel Woodworth Cozzens 
and a few others — to the seven wonderful cities 
of the Moquis, situated near the Colorado Chi- 
quito, in Arizona, 

Dr. Oscar Leow, chemist to Wheeler's Survey- 
ing Expedition, has contributed a brief but in- 
tensely interesting article to the " Popular Science 
Monthly" for July, 1874, on "The Moquis Indians 
of Arizona." By reference to the Indian reports, 
it appears that this nation has never been brought 



BY THE WELSH. 



151 



in contact with the Indian Bureau, nor with the 
Arizona agency, although within its jurisdiction. 
Small appropriations have recently been made for 
them; and it is likely that much more will soon 
be learned about them, — their habits, industries, 
language, and strange history. 

Their seven cities stand upon very high, precipi- 
tous cliffs of sandstone, which, when seen in the 
distance, present such bold fronts that it appears 
out of the question for any one to think of climb- 
ing them. As the traveller approaches, however, 
he discovers narrow and circuitous paths, which 
must be passed over single file, up and up, till 
the summit is reached. On this giddy height is 
the home of the Moquis. Dr. Leow terms it the 
** Gibraltar of the West," which the Navajos and 
Apaches have never been able to conquer. The 
Moquis number about two thousand five hundred. 
The cities rest on four sandstone mesas, — tables, — 
which are about eight miles apart. On the first 
table are three of the cities, named Tehua, Tsitsu- 
mo-vi, and Obiki; on the second are Mushangene- 
vi and Shebaula-vi; the third is Shongoba-vi; and 
on the fourth is Orai-vi. 

The houses are built in rows of two, three, and 
four stories in height, and constructed in terrace 
style, with the upper stories removed a few feet 
back from the lower ones. The sides fronting^ the 
bluffs are quite near, with only a narrow ledge 
along which to walk, and where the children were 



152 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



seen by the doctor, playing-, unconscious of danger, 
while the mothers were within the houses perform- 
ing their duties, though an awful gulf hundreds of 
feet in depth yawned beneath. Here the habitations 
are not built of adobe, like Indian and Mexican 
huts, but of stones firmly held in place by a cement 
of clay and sand. The stories are about seven feet 
high, divided into rooms, and each provided with 
a fire-place. Windows are cut into the walls about 
^a foot square. 

The architecture of these stone houses bears a 
marked conformity with that of the ruder ages 
among the Welsh. 

The physical appearance of the Moquis is a 

nearer approach to that of the Caucasian than to 

that of the Mongolian race. The complexion is a 

^ light red-brown, and the countenance unusually 

intelligent. 

Mr. Cozzens says that " their faces were so bright 
and intelligent that I fancied they only required to 
be clothed in American dress, and shorn of their 
long locks of coarse black hair, to enable them to 
easily pass for people of our own race who had 
become brown from exposure to the sun. 

" Their clothing is neat, and they have an abun- 
dance of it. They knit, spin, and weave blankets, 
cloaks, etc. They also manufacture certain kinds 
of pottery. They have a system of reservoirs or 
stone tanks, built of masonry in a substantial man- 
ner, and which hold millions of gallons of water. 



BY THE WELSH. 



153 



These are connected with smaller ones below by- 
pipes, and thus utilized for their stock, which com- 
prise dogs, donkeys, sheep, goats, and chickens. 
The sheep and goats are driven some eight or ten 
miles from the mesas to some pasture-lands. The 
principal crop is corn, which is planted deep in the 
ground to obtain a greater degree of moisture. 
The corn is ground, and then mixed with water, 
so as to form a paste. The woman who makes it 
dips her hand in the paste and rapidly passes some 
of it over hot stones, where it is soon baked. The 
cakes resemble the Welsh bara llechan, noted in 
their cookery. They have a kind of food called 
panoche, and still another called iomales, — by mix- 
ing flour and meat in a powdered state. They also 
raise beans, cotton, and tobacco. 

"The women appear more intelligent than the 
men, and dress with far more taste. The daugh- 
ters of the chief are said to be exceedingly interest- 
ing ladies. The hair is worn a la Pompadour, with 
two inverse rolls on the side of the head, by the 
unmarried. When married, the rolls give place to 
broad braids. The Moquis girls have one privilege 
which ladies do not generally enjoy: they have the 
right to propose for their own husbands. When 
they have made their proposals, the fathers make 
the arrangements. The bride then prepares with 
her own hands the weddinor-dinner. 

(J* Females are not permitted to dance ; their places 
are taken by young men who dress in imitation of 

14 



154 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



the women. All the dancers wear masks made of 
peeled willow twigs nicely woven together ; males 
have theirs dyed brown, and supposed females 
bright yellow. 

**The vice of drunkenness and crime of murder 
are not known among this people. 

"They are kind, warm-hearted, and hospitable. 
They believe that their great father, Montezuma, 
lives where the sun rises." 

Mr. Cozzens studied their manners and customs, 
and endeavored to learn something of the history 
of this singular race. He says that it is asserted 
by the people of the other pueblos " that they are 
descendants of the Aztecs, though with Welsh 
blood in their veins." 

That they have occupied their present location 
for a long time may be inferred from the fact that 
their feet have worn down the path- in the rock 
between the several villages to the depth of some 
inches. 

The Mohaves, who are on the Colorado River 
Reservation, Arizona, are a small, isolated tribe, 
not more than perhaps a thousand all told. They 
are different from all other Indians. The women 
are tall, cleanly, and less servile than most Indian 
women. Their language is peculiar, and has Welsh 
words in it. The more recent reports of the United 
States Government agents contain complaints 
against the vile traders who are leading this once 
sober and respectable tribe into all sorts of vice, 



BY THE WELSH. 



155 



drunkenness, immorality, loathsome diseases, and 
crimes. White men, with their boasted civilization 
and virtues, drag the Indians to the brink of ruin, 
and then crowd them over as vile and disgusting 
creatures. 

The perfidious and barbarous massacre of Gen- 
eral Canby, Rev. Eleazer Thomas, and others, by 
that savage band called the Modocs, brought them 
into an unenviable notoriety; but, while passing, 
it is worthy of query how they came by a name so 
much like that of Madoc. 



156 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SIGNS OF FREEMASONRY AMONG INDIANS. 

The first printed evidence of the introduction 
of Freemasonry in America is found in the "Penn- 
sylvania Gazette" of December 8th, 1730, pub- 
lished by Benjamin Franklin. It is as follows: 
" As there are several lodges of Freemasons 
erected in this province, and people have been 
lately much amused with conjectures concerning 
them, we think the following account of Freema- 
sonry from London will not be unacceptable to 
our readers." This is followed by a letter on the 
mystery. But, if the testimony of intelligent trav- 
ellers can be accepted, it seems quite evident that 
lodges of Freemasons were in existence among 
the American Indians centuries prior to this time, 
all of which point to a Welsh origin. They cer- 
tainly had private societies, which met at certain 
times, and the proceedings of which were kept in- 
violably secret under an oath. 

Governor De Witt Clinton believed that the signs 
of Freemasonry were found among the Indians. 
He was an eminent member of the craft himself, 
and was as familiar with its history, government. 



BY THE WELSH. 



157 



rules, and signs as any person of his time. In an 
interview that he had with an Indian preacher, the 
latter unmistakably made revelations which con- 
vinced the former that he was familiar with the 
order. This Indian said that he had obtained this 
knowledge from a Menomonie chief. 

There was one order among the Iroquois con- 
sisting of five Oneidas, two Cayugas, two St. Regis, 
and six Senecas. The period of their meeting 
could never be ascertained. These private soci- 
eties were not confined to the Iroquois, but seem 
to have extended among all the tribes. Their 
rules of government and the admission of mem- 
bers were the same as among the whites. No one 
could be received as a member of the fraternity 
except by ballot, and the concurrence of the whole 
body was necessary to a choice. They had differ- 
ent degrees in the order. Their ceremonies of 
initiation were remarkable, and the mode of pass- 
ing from one degree to another would awaken 
astonishment among civilized Masons. 

Whence did they originate ? There was a long 
period in Europe when the knowledge of Free- 
masonry was mostly confined to the Druids, and 
in Wales this order was the most generally found. 
It was their home. There they had their colleges 
and schools of learning. They were, indeed, 
priests, legislators, and historians. Through their 
order the principles of the mystic craft were pre- 
served throughout Europe. It was associated with 
14* 



158 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



the later system of Bardism ; and when under 
James the First there was such a revival of the 
order, and it began to spread with such rapidity, 
embracing all classes, from the king on his throne 
down to his humblest subject, it was known that 
its deepest roots were struck in the soil of Wales. 
Madoc, the son of a king, and surrounded by a 
heroic band of eminent men, could not be igno- 
rant of the principles of Freemasonry, and when 
they landed in America they brought those prin- 
ciples with them, to be afterwards imparted to 
such of those with whom they mingled as to offer 
material means of safety. There are not wanting 
instances where the lives of many whites have 
been spared by the Indians because they under- 
stood certain secret signs communicated to them. 



BY THE WELSH. 



159 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE WELSH LANGUAGE AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS. 

An eminent modern linguist has said "that the 
genealogy and antiquities of nations can be learned 
only from the sure testimony of their languages." 
Admitting the correctness of such a statement, 
though it does not possess axiomatic accuracy, it 
may furthermore be added, that the discovery of 
portions of a language among other distant na- 
tions, separated by a vast ocean, and differing in 
race, language, habits, and conditions of life, surely 
indicates that some who spoke that language must 
have brought it there. It may be urged that dis- 
tant resemblances have led enthusiastic philolo- 
gists in support of their cause to imagine a simi- 
larity in the form and sound of certain words, 
when, in fact, those words are entirely different in 
meaning. Instances of this kind have occurred in 
the study of the European languages. But when 
it is found that an identity exists in (i) the form, 
(2) the sound, and (3) the signification, and that, 
too, in multiplied instances, there is reason to be- 
lieve that this identity does not rest on accident or 
coincidence. The student of language searches for 



l6o AMERICA DISCOVERED 

some more satisfactory solution of the question, 
by ascertaining-, if possible, how those portions 
were introduced. 

Now, this is just the case with the Celtic lan- 

V guage found among the Indian dialects. From 
New England to South America, Celtic words have 
been found whose structure, pronunciation, and 
signification were the same as those in use by 

^he Gaels, Erse or Irish, and Welsh. Names of 
tribes, persons, places, rivers, and of many living 
and inanimate objects on the American continent, 
have been applied, and are now used, which can 
find their right place only by assigning to them a 
Celtic origin. This very soon came to be observed 
by all Europeans who arrived in the country, and 
some set themselves diligently to work to find out 
the cause. Some said that was not to be wondered 
at, — the finding of Celtic words among Americans, 
— for undoubtedly the Celts have been very widely 
spread over the globe. This, however, was too 
general an affirmation to satisfy others. The cele- 
brated Bishop Nicholson believed that the Welsh 
language formed a considerable part of the lan- 
guages of the' American nations. Sir Thomas 
Herbert, who published his travels in London in 
1683, has given a list of words taken from the 
Indian dialects, which have an undoubted Welsh 
origin : grocso, " welcome," givenddzvr, '* white or 
limpid water," bam, " bread," tad, '' father," viani, 
" mother," bucli or biiivcJi, " cow," llwnog, " fox," 



BY THE WELSH. l5l 

cock y dzvr, "a red water-bird," ^///^Vzr (American, 
clugar), "partridge." Some doubt the derivation 
of " penguin" ^rom peiigiuyii, because it is thought 
that "white head" — its literal meaning — would 
be a misnomer when applied to the American 
penguin. By no means. As it stands on its short 
legs it presents a white front from its head and ex- 
posed breast, and might very well have received 
this appellation. There is some similarity in the 
name of a once powerful chief who lived in New 
England to that of Madoc, viz., Madokawando, — 
Madoc and gwra7ido, "to listen" or "to be obe- 
dient to," "to submit to or follow." The guttural 
g in the Welsh language is often dropped, espe- 
cially before a vowel. Take the Welsh vcYhgallu, 
" to be able," or the noun gall, " energy, might," 
and by the omission of the letter^ the words will 
stand allii, all. U is sounded like e in English, 
hence allu would be pronounced alle. Alligeni 
(Alleghany) is a compound word, composed of 
allu, " mighty," and geni, " born," or " mighty 
born." This is the name of the people who once 
dwelt along the immense range called by that 
name, and were displaced by the powerful na- 
tions, particularly the Iroquois, who came from 
the northwest. Potomac has a more evident Greek 
origin, for its word for "river" is potamos. Pontigo 
seems to come from pout, "a bridge," and go, "a 
smith," — " a smith's bridge." Nanticoke is found 
in nant-y-civcli, " a curved brook or river," — a very 



1 62 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

appropriate designation for that tribe, whether 
applied prior to their leaving the river in Maryland 
or after ascending the Susquehanna. 

Appomattox — now well known to the world — 
signifies appivy, " appoint" or " name," and Mattox, 
" Madoc" or " Mattoc," the latter having the soft 
Silurian sound ; hence, " Madoc's name." 

Madoc's Creek is known by most Virginians, 
and by others. 

It is well known that in the origin of Indian 
names it was customary for the tribes to assume 
those of the country they inhabited which had 
some distinct peculiarities. By this means, as they 
removed from one place to another, these names 
became multiplied. For example, the U-in-tats, 
known as a branch of the Utes, belonged to the 
Uintah Valley. U-imp is the name for pine ; U-im- 
too-meap, pine-land, which, contracted, means U-in- 
tahs. The origin of Ute is as follows : U is a term 
signifying arrow ; U-too-meap, arrow-land, because 
the country bordering Utah Lake furnished the 
reeds for arrow-shafts. 

Aztlan seems clearly to have been derived from 
Welsh words having become mingled with Indian 
dialects, as as, " plane surface" or " area," and laii, 
" up," an elevated area or table-land. What better 
definition could be found to describe the Aztec pla- 
teau, beginning in Aztlan proper and continuing to 
widen into the Mexican plateau ? The termination 
/a?i is very common in the Aztec language. It is 



£y THE WELSH. 



■63 



found in the names of tribes, their cities, and a mul- 
titude of other objects, — Tlascalans, Cholulans, and 
other peoples who dwelt in and around the upper 
countries of the Aztec empire. The terminations 
an and pan, the latter indicating locality, as prefix 
or suffix, are very noticeable. So frequent also 
is the use of cJi, tli, and //, that the Welsh student 
who speaks or reads aloud Aztec words is simply 
astounded by their perfect consonance with those 
of his native tongue. 

Rev. Morgan Jones affirms that in 1660 he con- 
versed with Indians who spoke and understood the 
Welsh language, that he remained among them 
and preached in that language four months, and 
that it was his intention when he left to return and 
visit them. Rev. Charles Beatty, General Bowles,! 
Messrs. Price, Binon, Willin, Burnell, Griffith,' 
Stuart, Sevier, Lewis, and many others unhesi- 
tatingly relate that they personally, or those whom 
they knew to be veracious, intelligent witnesses, 
had visited Indians who spoke the Welsh language 
sufficiently to be understood by them, without 
taking into account their other peculiarities of 
color, beard, customs, traditions, arts, etc. 

George Catlin, who spent years of patient in- 
vestigation into the language of the Mandans and 
of other Indians, has given a table of Mandan and 
Welsh words, with their pronunciations. Those 
who have any acquaintance with the Moquis and 
Mohave tongues declare that they contain Welsh 



164 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



words. Relics with Celtic inscriptions have been 
unearthed. Aztec and Spanish chroniclers con- 
firm more recent researches respecting the pres- 
ence of Celtic words in the old Aztec language. 
The speech of Montezuma discloses their eastern 
origin, and that their astounding civilization was 
due to white men. 

What then ? 

Why, that such a mass of testimony under such 
a variety of circumstances, precluding the idea of 
preconcert, interest, prejudice, or downright igno- 
rance, establishes the fact that the Welsh were on 
this continent prior to its discovery by Colum- 
bus, and that those Welsh were led thither by 
Prince Madoc in 11 70 a.d. Many historical facts 
to which the world has given implicit credence 
are far less supported than the above. Hereafter 
let not American historians pass over these facts 
in contemptuous silence. 



BY THE WELSH. 165 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE WELSH OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

The Welsh have claims for recognition and pa- 
triotic gratitude by the American people, because 
of the prominent part taken by some of their de- 
scendants in founding the American Republic. 
The Welsh mind and heart have contributed no 
small share, in common with the good, the noble, 
and the enlightened of other lands, to mould its 
institutions and to make possible a country where 
the highest conditions of a Christian civilization 
may be enjoyed. 

That little vessel of one hundred and eighty 
tons' burden, the Mayflower, embryo of a free 
republic, was commanded by a Welshman, Cap- 
tain Jones. Among those who came as pas- 
sengers were several of Welsh origin, — Thomas 
Rogers, Stephen Hopkins, John Alden, and John 
Howland. The last one named was attached to 
Governor Carver's household. So the Welsh 
have a share in the celebration of the landing 
of the Pilgrim Fathers. What must have been 
the thoughts of that band of forty-one men (one 

15 



1 56 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

hundred and one souls in all) as they stood on 
Plymouth Rock and looked into the vast forests 
before them, so soon by their sturdy energy and 
that of their descendants to be transformed into 
fruitful farms and splendid cities and towns! 

Roger Williams was born in Wales in 1599. 
He was a relative of the Protector, Oliver Crom- 
well. Banished from Massachusetts in 1635, he 
penetrated the forests in mid-winter till he came 
to the country of the Narragansets, — where the 
chief sachem, Canonicus, gave him a grant of 
land, which, in token of "God's merciful provi- 
dence to him in his distress," he called Providence. 
Here he established a pure democracy, all equally 
sharing the dignity and privileges of the govern- 
ment. He was so kind in his treatment of the 
surr6unding Indians that he was much beloved by 
them, and it was by his great power over them that 
he saved his white persecutors from destruction. 
Yet his enemies did not revoke his sentence of 
banishment. The city government of Providence 
is honoring his memory by the erection of a bronze 
statue. 

Of that immortal band of men who composed 
the Continental Congress, and were signers of 
the Declaration of Independence, eighteen were 
Welshmen : 

John Adams . . . Massachusetts. 
Samuel Adams ... " 



BY THE WELSH. 



167 



Stephen Hopkins 
William Williams 
William Floyd . 
Francis Lewis 
Lewis Morris 
Francis Hopkinson 
Robert Morris . 
George Clymer . 
John Morton 
John Penn . 
Arthur Middleton 
Button Gwinnett 
Thomas Jefferson 
Benjamin Harrison 
Richard Henry Lee 
Francis Henry Lightfoot 



Rhode Island. 
Connecticut. 
New York. 



New Jersey. 
Pennsylvania. 



North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 
Georgia. 
Virginia. 



Lee 



Notwithstanding abler pens have sketched them 
all, it may not be uninteresting to touch upon a 
few facts in the biography of the above list. Com- 
mencing with New England, where so many of 
Welsh blood came after the Restoration, having 
been the followers of Cromwell, it will be in order 
to notice John and Samuel Adams. 

John Adams was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, 
in 1735. His services were distinguished \\\ the 
American Revolution; he was a member of the 
committee which made the draft of the Declara- 
tion, and a signer of the document. He was Presi- 
dent and Vice-President of the United States. He 



1 68 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

died at the age of ninety-one, in 1826, just half a 
century after the Declaration. 

Samuel Adams was born in Boston, in 1722. 
He was a fearless patriot and a stirring orator. 
He was educated for the ministry at Harvard Col- 
lege, but became so engrossed in politics that he 
relinquished that profession. He was in the Con- 
tinental Congress, was Governor of Massachusetts, 
and left the impress of his power on the Constitu- 
tion of his State, which he helped to frame. He 
died at the age of eighty-one, in 1803. 

Stephen Hopkins was born in Providence, and 
was a self-taught man. He wrote and acted against 
the oppression of the colonies by the home-govern- 
ment long prior to the Revolution. He filled im- 
portant offices in his State, became a member of 
the Continental Congress, and sighed the Declara- 
tion. He died in July, 1785. 

From Connecticut came William Williams. He 
graduated at Harvard College, at the age of twenty, 
in 175 1. He became a lawyer, but afterwards chose 
the profession of arms, and was aide to his brother 
who fell at Fort George in 1755. He died at the 
age of eighty-one, in 181 1. 

New York furnished three Welshmen out of her 
four delegates, — the fourth, Mr. Livingston, being 
of Scotch origin, though the family came from 
Holland. William Floyd was born in the year 
1734, on Long Island. He was possessed of large 
means. He was in the first Continental Congress 



BY THE WELSH. 



169 



in 1774, and signed the Declaration in 1776. His 
losses of property by the English were large. He 
died at the age of eighty-seven, in 1821. 

Francis Lewis was born in South Wales, in 17 13. 
His education was partly acquired in Scotland and 
in Westminster, London. He was in business in 
that city, came to New York, and conducted busi- 
ness for English merchants. He was taken pris- 
oner in the French War and carried to France ; 
after his return to New York he was sent to Con- 
gress, and signed the Declaration in 1776. His 
property on Long Island was destroyed by the 
English. He died at the age of ninety, in 1803. 

Lewis Morris, the fourth and last from New 
York, was born of a Welsh family, in 1726. He 
was a graduate of Yale, and afterwards settled on 
his father's farm, now known as Morrisania, West- 
chester County. Lewis's father was the son of an 
officer in Cromwell's army, and first royal gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, in 1738. Lewis was sent to 
the Continental Congress in 1775, and served till 
1777. His losses by the Revolution were immense. 
He died at the age of seventy-two, in 1798. 

Francis Hopkinson, a delegate from New Jersey, 
was from a Welsh family. He was born in Phila- 
delphia, in 1737. He was noted as a lawyer, wit, 
and poet. He wrote several political pamphlets, 
and was the author of many ^oqWc3.\ jeux-(f esprit , 
one of the best-known of which is " The Battle of 
the Kegs," which begins, — 
15* 



I^O AMERICA DISCOVERED 

•'Gallants, attend, and hear a friend 
Trill forth harmonious ditty; 
Strange things I'll tell, which late befell 
In Philadelphia City." 

Mr. Hopkinson signed the Declaration, after- 
wards was eminent as a judge, and died at the age 
of fifty-three, in 1791. His son, Joseph Hopkin- 
son, was the author of the national song " Hail 
Columbia," the origin of which was as follows. 
It was in 1798. The country was excited in an- 
ticipation of war with France. Mr. Fox, a theat- 
rical singer and actor, called upon Mr. Hopkinson 
and remarked, "To-morrow evening is appointed 
for my benefit at the theatre. Not a single box 
has been taken, and I fear there will be a thin 
house. If you will write some patriotic verse to 
the tune of the ' President's March,' I feel sure of 
a full house." Mr. Hopkinson went to his study, 
wrote the first verse and chorus, then submitted 
them to Mr. Fox, who sang them to a harpsichord 
accompaniment. The song was completed, the 
next morning the placards announcing that Mr. 
Fox would sing a new patriotic song. The theatre 
was crowded, the song was sung, and the audience 
thrilled with patriotic delight. 

The name of George Clymer indicates his Welsh 
origin. Thomas Jefferson boarded in the house of 
Mrs. Clymer, on the southwest corner of Seventh 
and High Streets, Philadelphia, where he drew the 
orisrinal draft of the Declaration. 



BY THE WELSH. 



171 



John Morton, although a resident of Pennsyl- 
vania, was born in Delaware, and was descended 
from a Welsh family on his mother's side. His 
father was of Swedish descent. He was on the 
committee which reported the Articles of Con- 
federation. 

John Penn, of a Welsh family, was born in Vir- 
ginia. He studied law with Mr. Pendleton, and sub- 
sequently settled in North Carolina. From there 
he was sent as delegate, and signed the Declaration. 
Arthur Middleton, from South Carolina, was a 
Welshman. He was a graduate of Cambridge 
University, England, and arrived in America in 
1773. He was taken prisoner when Charleston 
surrendered to the British. He lost most of his 
fortune by the Revolution. He died in January, 
1789, aged forty-four. 

Button Gwinnett was a native of Wales. He 
was born in 1732, was well educated, entered 
mercantile life, went to Georgia and purchased a 
large tract of land. He signed the Declaration, 
aided in framing the State Constitution, was Gov- 
ernor, and fell in a duel which he fought with 
General Mcintosh, aged forty-six. 

Thomas Jefferson's ancestors came from the 
foot of Mount Snowdon, Wales, to the colony of 
Virginia. He boasted of his Welsh blood. He 
stands in the front as a defender of civil and 
religious liberty, and had engraved upon his seal, 
^'Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!' 



1/2 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



As the author of the Declaration, of the aboli- 
tion of the connection between Church and State, 
the laws of primogeniture, the restrictions upon 
the Federal Constitution respecting the States, so 
as forever to prevent a centralized and an aristo- 
cratic government, he must be recognized as one of 
the most valuable men this country has ever had. 
By a strange coincidence — shall it be called that? 
— at the age of eighty-four, he breathed his last 
on the same day that John Adams did, July 4, 
1826. They were life-long personal friends, with 
a brief interruption, but political opponents. On 
a plain marble slab at Monticello is the following 
inscription : 

Here Lies Thomas Jefferson: 

Author of the Declaration of Independence ; 

of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom; 

and Father of the University of Virginia, 

Benjamin Harrison, chairman of the Committee 
that reported the Declaration, was descended from 
the Welsh. He was related to General Thomas 
Harrison, one of the regicides, the Commonwealth 
men of Cromwell, and who was executed at New- 
gate. When he was approaching the scaffold, one 
of the king's scoffers stood by and tauntingly 
asked, "Where is your good old cause now?" 
The brave Harrison, with a cheerful smile, replied, 
clapping his hand on his breast, ''Here it is, and I 



BY THE WELSH. 



173 



am going to seal it with my blood!' Some of that 
grand stuff was afterwards found in his descend- 
ants. Benjamin Harrison filled various positions, 
and was Governor of the State from 1782 to 1784. 
He died on his farm in 1790. His son, William 
Henry Harrison, served in the War of 18 12, and 
was elected President of the United States in 1840, 
but died on the 4th of April, 1 841, precisely one 
month after his inauguration. 

Richard Henry Lee was from a Welsh family, 
as, in fact, were all the Lees of that period. He 
was born in 1732, educated in England, and after 
his return to America in 1757 was elected a mem- 
ber of the House of Burgesses. 

He was elected to the Continental Congress in 
1774, and in July, 1776, he had the honor to offer 
the resolution declaring the colonies free and 
independent. The day before the appointment of 
the committee to draft the Declaration, Mr. Lee 
was called away to the bedside of a sick wife, or 
he would doubtless have been appointed chairman. 
In 1773 he, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry 
had a serious consultation in the old Raleigh 
Tavern, at Williamsburg, Virginia, in respect to 
submitting a resolution to the Virginia House, 
recommending the appointment of a Committee 
of Vigilance and Correspondence, and expressing 
the hope that the other colonies would do the 
same. It was passed; and from that time the 
Revolution began to assume organic form, and 



174 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



prepared the way for 1776. Mr. Lee was United 
States Senator under the Constitution, which 
office he held with signal ability. He died June 
14, 1794, in his sixty-second year. 

Francis Henry Lightfoot Lee was of Welsh 
origin, and a signer. He was born in Virginia on 
the loth of September, 1734. He was educated 
at home, and from 1765 to 1775 served his State 
as a member of the House of Burgesses. He 
died in April, 1797, in his sixty-third year. 

Many of the facts given above concerning these 
signers are not found in their usual biographies, 
and therefore they are inserted here. 

Robert Morris, who came to this country when 
a child, served an apprenticeship with a merchant, 
became a successful business man by his energy 
and integrity, and during the Revolution his for- 
tune and unlimited commercial credit were su- 
perior to Congress itself. In the darkest days, 
when the army was unfed and unclothed, Wash- 
ington could turn to his dear friend Robert Morris 
for help. He gave his immense means to his coun- 
try, and died, in comparative poverty, in 1806, aged 
seventy-three years. 

Gouverneur Morris, who wrote the first con- 
nected draft of the American Constitution, was a 
Welshman. 

Among those who fought in the Revolution 
may be found a long list of Welsh by nativity or 
descent : 



BY THE WELSH. 



175 



Charles Lee, 
Isaac Shelby, 
Anthony Wayne, 
Morgan Lewis, 
William R. Davie, 
Edward Stevens, 
Richard Winn, 



Generals. 

Daniel Morgan, 
John Cadwallader, 
Andrew Lewis, 
Otho H. Williams, 
John Thomas, 
Joseph Williams, 
James Reese. 



Colonels. 



David Humphreys, 
Lambert Cadwallader, 
Richard Howell, 
Ethan Allen. 



Henry Lee, 
Thomas Marshall, 
James Williams (killed 
at BenningtoJi). 



Captains. 
John Marshall [after- Isaac Davis, 
zvards Chief ^ns tic e), Anthony Morris, 
Captain Rogers. 

Besides these, there was a host of subordinate 
officers who could claim descent from the Welsh. 

In the navy were Commodore Hopkins and 
others ; and at a later period Commodores Rogers, 
Perry, Jacob Jones, and Ap Catesby Jones. 

Dr. John Morgan was Surgeon-in-Chief of the 
American army, and one of the founders of the 
Philadelphia Medical School, the first of the kind 
established in America, and the beginning of the 
great University. He came from a Welsh family. 



176 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



Among the divines were Revs. David Jones, 
Samuel Davie, David Williams, Morgan Edwards, 
and others. Perhaps the most distinguished of 
these was Mr. Jones. His ancestors came from 
Wales, and settled on the *' Welsh Tract " in 
Delaware county, Pa. He was on a mission 
among the Shawanese and Delaware Indians in 
1772-73. In 1776 he was appointed chaplain to 
Colonel St. Clair's regiment, and was on duty at 
Ticonderoga when the enemy was momentarily 
expected from Crown Point. He delivered a 
characteristic discourse, which produced a power- 
ful impression upon the troops. When with Gen- 
eral Wayne, he saw an English dragoon alight 
and enter a house for refreshments. The chaplain 
went to the dragoon's horse, took the pistols from 
the holsters, went into the house, made him a 
prisoner, and marched him into camp : Wayne 
complimented him for his bravery. He was also 
with General Gates; also at the battles of Brandy- 
wine, Germantown, and Monmouth ; with the 
army at Valley Forge, and in all subsequent 
campaigns to the surrender of Yorktown by 
Cornwallis. At the age of seventy-six he served 
as chaplain in the War of 1 8 12. He died in Feb- 
ruary, 1820, aged eighty-four. 

Rev. Samuel Davies became President of Prince- 
ton College. When Washington was colonel, and 
after Braddock's defeat, Mr. Davies, who was ad- 
dressing the volunteer company, used this Ian- 



BY THE WELSH. 



77 



guage in allusion to Washington : " I cannot but 
hope that Providence has hitherto preserved him 
in so signal a manner for some important service 
to his country." 

General Washington's family associations were 
with the descendants of the Welsh. His wife, 
Martha, whom he called, familiarly " Patsy," was 
the grand-daughter of Rev. Orlando Jones, who 
came to Virginia from Wales. Colonel Fielding 
Lewis, of Welsh descent, married Washington's 
sister; and his son, George Washington Lewis, 
was commander of the general's life-guard. 

Elihu Yale, the founder of Yale College, Jona- 
than Edwards, Daniel Webster, Charles Davies the 
mathematician, and a long array of brilliant men 
and women who have adorned every station in 
American society, were of Welsh origin or descent. 
Mr. Webster, however, was descended only from 
his mother's side. 

Seven Presidents of the United States have 
descended from the Welsh race, — John Adams, 
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, 
John Quincy Adams, and William Henry Harrison. 

Chief-Justice John Marshall, the first to expound 
the Constitution, was the grandson of a native of 
Wales; and, as if the office should continue in 
such a lineage, Chief-Justice Roger B. Taney was 
sprung from a family descended from the northern 
part of Wales. 

William Penn, founder of the great State of 
i6 



178 



AMERICA DISCOVERED 



Pennsylvania, Thomas Floyd, the first Governor of 
the colon}% and Anthony Morris, the first mayor 
of the refined city of Philadelphia, were Welsh. 

Oliver Evans, so famous for his inventions in 
high-pressure engines, by means of which all 
turbid streams could be successfully navigated, 
was born of a Welsh family near that city. It 
was found that the sediment of the water choked 
up or wore off the sliding-valves of the low-press- 
ure engines. He was the third person who re- 
ceived a patent from the United States — Samuel 
Hopkins being the first — for his inventions, and 
concerning which President Jefferson remarked 
that they were " too valuable to be covered by a 
patent, for they were such things that the people 
could not do without, once they were known." 

Mrs. De Witt Clinton was the daughter of Dr. 
Thomas Jones, the son of a Welsh physician 
whose father settled at Jamaica, Long Island, and 
who was widely known as Dr. John Jones. He was 
attached to the Revolutionary army as a surgeon, 
and a personal friend of Washington and Franklin. 
He was one of the founders of the New York 
Hospital, and a professor in the medical faculty 
in Columbia College at its institution. He was 
the first successful lithotomist in the country. 
Mrs. Clinton was his grand-daughter, having Dr. 
Thomas Jones for her father, and a daughter of 
Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration, for 
her mother. Maturin Livingston, a son of Philip, 



BY THE WELSH. I^g 

married a daughter of General Morgan Lewis. 
Of Mrs. Clinton it has been said that " she was in 
every sense a remarkable woman, — not less for her 
strength of mind than for her noble good breed- 
ing, purity, and polish of manners. She was lib- 
eral and frank, and fully appreciated the great 
mind of her noble husband; and the harder the 
storms of personal and political strife blew upon 
him, the closer her affections twined around him, 
while she nobly and devoutly cherished his mem- 
ory to the last." 

Their services, in connection with those of 
almost every other land, have helped to lay the 
foundations, deep and broad, of the great Amer- 
ican republic, whose majestic proportions are 
rising higher and still higher, commanding the 
wonder and admiration of all ; but, while the later 
builders are at work, they will not forget to offer 
some souvenir in behalf of those who worked so 
wisely and so well. 

The memory of all "smells sweet, and blossoms 
in the dust." 



l8o AMERICA DISCOVERED 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ADDRESS OF KEV. DAVID JONES TO GENERAL ST. 
glair's BRIGADE, AT TICONDEROGA, WHEN THE 
ENEMY WERE HOURLY EXPECTED, OCTOBER 20, 
1776. 

" My countrymen, fellow-soldiers, and friends : 
" I am sorry that during this campaign I have 
been favored with so few opportunities of address- 
ing you on subjects of the greatest importance, 
both with respect to this life and that which is to 
come; but what is past cannot be recalled, and 
NOW time will not admit an enlargement, as we 
have the greatest reason to expect the advance- 
ment of our enemies as speedily as Heaven will 
permit. [The wind blew strongly to the north.] 
Therefore, at present let it suffice to bring to your 
remembrance some necessary truths. 

" It is our common faith, and a very just one 
too, that all events on earth are under the notice 
of that God in whom we live, move, and have our 
being : therefore we must believe that in this im- 
portant struggle with the worst of enemies he has 
assigned us our post here at Ticonderoga. Our 
situation is such that, if properly defended, we 



BY THE WELSH. l8i 

shall give our enemies a fatal blow, and in a great 
measure prove the means of the salvation of North 
America. Such is our present case, that we are 
fighting for all that is near and dear to us, while 
our enemies are engaged in the worst of causes, 
their design being to subjugate, plunder, and en- 
slave a free people that have done them no harm. 
Their tyrannical views are so glaring, their cause 
so horribly bad, that there still remains too much 
goodness and humanity in Great Britain to engage 
unanimously against us: therefore they have been 
obliged — and at a most amazing expense, too — 
to hire the assistance of a barbarous, mercenary 
people, that would cut your throat for the small 
reward of a sixpence. No doubt these have hopes 
of being our task-masters, and would rejoice at 
our calamities. 

** Look, oh, look, therefore, at your respective 
States, and anticipate the consequences if these 
vassals are suffered to enter ! It would fail the 
most fruitful imagination to represent in a proper 
light what anguish, what horror, what distress, 
would spread over the whole! See, oh, see the 
dear wives of your bosoms forced from their peace- 
ful habitations, and perhaps used with such inde- 
cency that modesty would forbid the description ! 
Behold, the fair virgins of your land, whose benev- 
olent souls are now filled with a thousand good 
wishes and hopes of seeing their admirers return 
home crowned with victory, would not only meet 



1 82 AMERICA DISCOVERED 

with a doleful disappointment, but also with such 
insults and abuses that would induce their tender 
hearts to pray for the shades of death ! See your 
children exposed as vagabonds to all the calamities 
of this life ! Then, oh, then adieu to all felicity 
this side of the grave ! Now, all these calamities 
must be prevented if our God be for us, — and who 
can doubt of this who observes the point in which 
the wind now blows? — if you will only acquit your- 
selves like men, and with firmness of mind go forth 
against your enemies, irsolving either to return ivitli 
victory or to die gloriously. 

" Every one who may fall in this dispute will be 
justly esteemed a martyr to liberty, and his name 
will be had in precious memory while the love of 
freedom remains in the breasts of men. All whom 
God will favor to see a glorious victory will return 
to their respective States with every mark of honor, 
and be received with joy and gladness of heart by 
all friends to liberty and lovers of mankind. As 
our present case is singular, I hope, therefore, that 
the candid will excuse me if I conclude with an 
uncommon address, in substance principally ex- 
tracted from the writings of the Bible, though at 
the same time it is freely acknowledged that I 
am not possessed of any similar power either of 
blessing or cursing. 

" I. Blessed be that man who is possessed of a 
true love of liberty; and let all the people say, 
Ame?i. 



BY THE WELSH. 



183 



"2. Blessed be that man who is a friend to the 
United States of America ; and let all the people 
say, Amen. 

" 3. Blessed be that man who will use his utmost 
endeavors to oppose the tyranny of Great Britain, 
and to vanquish all her forces invading North 
America ; and let all the people say, Amen. 

"4. Blessed be that man who is resolved never to 
submit to Great Britain; and let all the people say, 
Amen. 

"5. Blessed be that man who in the present 
dispute esteems not his life too good to fall a 
sacrifice in defence of his country : let his pos- 
terity, if any he has, be blessed with riches, honor, 
virtue, and true religion; and let all the people say, 
Ame?i. 

" Now, on the other hand, as far as is consistent 
with the Holy Scriptures, let all these blessings be 
turned into curses to him who deserts the noble 
cause in which we are engaged, and turns his back 
to the enemy before he receives proper orders to 
retreat ; and let all the people say, Amen. 

" Let him be abhorred by all the United States 
of America. 

** Let faintness of heart and fear never forsake 
him on earth. 

'* Let him be a major miserabile^ a terror to him- 
self and all around him. 

" Let him be accursed in his outgoings, and 
cursed in his incomings ; cursed in his lying 



84 



AMERICA DISCOVERED BY THE WELSH. 



down, and cursed in his uprising; cursed in basket, 
and cursed in store. 

"Let him be cursed in all his connections, till 
his wretched head, with dishonor, is laid low in 
the dust ; and let all the soldiers say, Amen. 

"And may the God of all grace, in whom we live, 
enable us, in defence of our country, to acquit our- 
selves like men, to his honor and praise. Amen 
and Amen!' 

There were no traitors or cowards that day; and 
the deeds of the patriots have been emblazoned in 
prose and song, in monuments of brass and stone, 
in a great and glorious government, and in the 
praise and gratitude of a free people who meet to 
do them honor. 



THE END. 













"^^^ «: 







••..''^ -o*".."-'. %. " '*^' -- "''' 



£1 °^ .' 







fu 



;* <Lt> 
















^^ > 






^"•^*u V 



H>. *^- ♦* .y ^o,.''i^-' .o'> 











Vo^ »0 




^^.« 



0^ / 






>4? . 




^. c*' 



[><''♦ i(\\ Br /a o •*. <S^ ' £^ilKS( * ^j> <<' * 



/•^. 



.^0.<v . 













.' .i?'"^, V 



:??^*\.o'> V*^''*V* 




•iq 



X. « 



)*■ »'••- 




»•. ♦.; 



■^.-^'^^ • 













*'T^- «o V -^f'* .•«-i 



.* ... 



«- "> 









i- .^ 



A° 



fO. * • < 1 * A^ 






